#1 New York Times bestselling author Greg Iles returns with an electrifying tale of friendship, betrayal, and shattering secrets that threaten to destroy a small Mississippi town 'An ambitious stand-alone thriller that is both an absorbing crime story and an in-depth exploration of grief, betrayal and corruption in a small Southern community ... Greg Iles is back and at the top of his game.' Washington Post Successful journalist Marshall McEwan is forced to return home. His father is dying, his mother is struggling to keep the family newspaper from failing, and the town is in the midst of an economic rebirth that might be built upon crimes that reach into the state capitol - and perhaps even to Washington. More disturbing still, Marshall's high school sweetheart, Jet, has married into the family of Max Matheson, patriarch of one of the families that rule Bienville through a shadow organization called the Bienville Poker Club. When archeologist Buck McKibben is murdered at a construction site, Bienville is ...