In this Edgar Allen Poe Award-winning novel, Irene Kelly is on the hunt for the body of a murder victim...with the killer as her guide: "a journey into the heart of darkness" (Los Angeles Times). Only one person knows where Julia Sayre is: her killer. Four years ago, the young mother of two disappeared, a story that soon became a personal mission for Irene Kelly. But the search for Julia proved fruitless. Now on death row for unimaginable acts of torture and murder, inmate Nick Parrish is plea-bargaining for a life sentence, promising to lead investigators--and Irene--into the dark isolation of the Sierra Nevadas, where they will discover what really happened to Julia Sayre. But Parrish has other terrifying secrets and plans, and now his deadly focus is on a new potential victim--Irene Kelly.