Karl Dahl is accused of the brutal murder of a young woman. With his criminal record for a variety of offences, including burglary and spying on women in their homes, Prosecutor Chris Logan agues that Dahl is a serial killer in the making. The defense, however, convinces the judge of the leap between burglary and murder, and that Dahl's previous convictions should be withheld from the jury. Judge Carrie Moore agrees. It's an unpopular decision, and one that backfires when she is vilified in the press and receives hate-mail. Kovac and Liska are assigned to the case. Never fond of authority figures, Kovac isn't happy with the assignment. He knows the hours that go into bringing a prosecution and that often that hard work is dismissed by a lawyer or judge only too quick to discard a key piece of evidence. Over the weeks he's with her, Kovac's feelings to Moore and her life soften. And then she's kidnapped. His immediate suspicion falls on Carrie's soon-to-be ex-husband, who turns out to have a double life. It's a case that will take Kovac down a strange, dark trail of smoke and mirrors, where no is who they seem to be, and everyone is guilty of something...

Author Biography

Tami Hoag's novels have appeared regularly on the US national bestseller lists since the publication of her first book in 1988. She lives in California.