Like many authors with ongoing characters, Robert Crais has taken a break from his famous private eye. After eight novels featuring Elvis Cole and his loyal sidekick Joe Pike, Crais has created Carol Starkey, a bomb squad veteran now doing time as a Detective-2 with LAPD's Criminal Conspiracy Section. Three years have passed since the detonation that killed Carol's partner and lover, but she is still severely scarred both mentally and physically. She can't bear to look in the mirror, and she hasn't been with another man since David Boudreaux left her bed that last morning he went to work. She gets through the day with the help of Tagamet and alcohol.

Carol Starkey is struggling to pick up the pieces of her former life as L.A.'s finest bomb squad technician. Three years have passed since the explosion that shattered her life and now, fuelled by alcohol and prescription drugs, she's doing time as a detective with LAPD's Criminal Conspiracy Section.