"911. What is your emergency?"
This is the novel which introduced a new character to star in her own series of books by the author. That character is Bree Taggert, Philadelphia homicide detective. But the very first introduction to Taggert delivered to readers is as an eight-year-old girl desperately dialing 911 because the argument between her mommy and daddy is getting physical and scary. Bree's response to the emergency operator's inquiry is simply that her parents are fighting. In a very short period of time, that emergency is going to transform into a murder/suicide and Bree's future life a cop will seem almost predestined.
A dead body and a lake of blood.
Matt flinched.
He didn't need to feel for a pulse. From the size of the deep-red stain on the carpet, he knew the person was dead. No one could survive that much blood loss.
Matt is a sheriff's deputy who has stopped by to visit his friend Justin. His dog Brody is a retired K-9 dog and though typically arriving to see Justin sent the dog's tail wagging, Brody's tail was doing anything but wagging excitedly. The body is not Justin's, however, but Justin's wife, Erin. The same Erin who was in the house that night all those years ago when her older sister was talking to somebody on the phone while mommy and daddy were fighting. Lightning striking twice is rare enough, but even rarer is when the second strike occurs decades after the first. But Erin seems to have become a victim of much the same circumstances as her and Bree's mother. Except Justin didn't commit suicide. And, just possibly, didn't commit murder, either.
Craig was selfish enough to be a killer, even if she couldn't think of a motive.
Craig Vance is the father of Erin's two children. Bree is not his biggest fan. When she muses that he is capable of selling sand to a desert, it is not said with admiration. Craig first knocked Erin up when she was sixteen years old and the very idea of his taking custody of the two kids and raising them is simply not tenable in her eyes. So, while the immediately obvious suspect in her death is her drug addict husband, Justin, Bree is not so sure.
