This fast-paced follow-up to Irvin's debut romantic suspense novel, A Deadly Wilderness, will keep readers turning the pages long after it s time to turn out the lights.

The day Daniel Martinez's foster son Benny Garza is kidnapped at a wedding reception, homicide detectives Deborah Smith and Alex Luna find the bones of a little girl not far from Benny's abduction site.

Determined to save Benny and solve a five-year-old murder, the team of investigators travels from the seamy underside of San Antonio's drug-dealing gang territory to the back roads of rural America where secrets fester in simple country homes. Their investigation rips off the bandage that covers the cracks in an overburdened, understaffed foster care system and reveals the painful reality that children are all too often battered, terrified victims of the people who should love them the most.

Torn between salvaging his marriage and trying to save a child he s grown to love, Daniel fears both are slipping beyond his grasp. Deborah struggles to hang on to her new found sobriety in the face of the pressure of her job and her past, while Alex fights to get a foothold in the life of a woman who refuses to trust him or any other man. As the two investigations become more and more entwined, Deborah, Alex, and Daniel risk everything even their lives to bring a little boy home and unmask a child's murderer.