In this "captivating" crime novel (People), Texas Ranger Darren Mathews is on the hunt for a missing child -- but it´s the boy´s family of white supremacists who are his real target.
9-year-old Levi King knew he should have left for home sooner; now he´s alone in the darkness of vast Caddo Lake, in a boat whose motor just died. A sudden noise distracts him - and all goes dark.
Darren Mathews is trying to emerge from another kind of darkness; after the events of his previous investigation, his marriage is in a precarious state of re-building, and his career and reputation lie in the hands of his mother, who´s never exactly had his best interests at heart. Now she holds the key to his freedom, and she´s not above a little maternal blackmail to press her advantage.
An unlikely possibility of rescue arrives in the form of a case down Highway 59, in a small lakeside town where the local economy thrives on nostalgia for ante-bellum Texas - and some of the era´s racial attitudes still thrive as well. Levi´s disappearance has links to Darren´s last case, and to a wealthy businesswoman, the boy´s grandmother, who seems more concerned about the fate of her business than that of her grandson.
Darren has to battle centuries-old suspicions and prejudices, as well as threats that have been reignited in the current political climate, as he races to find the boy, and to save himself.