Phone calls before dawn from the sheriff are rarely good news. When Bell Elkins picks up the phone she already knows she won't like what she's about to hear, but she's still not prepared for this: Lucinda Trimble's body has been found at the bottom of Bitter River-- and she was dead before her body ever hit the water. Searching for the truth, both behind Lucinda's murder and behind her own complicated relationships, will lead Bell down a path that...

High summer in Acker's Gap, West Virginia--but no one's enjoying the rugged natural landscape. Not while a killer stalks the small town and its hard-luck inhabitants. County prosecutor Bell Elkins and Sheriff Nick Fogelsong are stymied by a murderer whoseems to come and go like smoke on the mountain. At the same time, Bell must deal with the return from prison of her sister, Shirley--who, like Bell, carries the indelible scars of a savage past. In...