From the author of the critically acclaimed Pirates' Alley Faulkner Wisdom semi-finalist, Lucky Thirteen, comes the second book in The Raiford Chronicles. Police Chief Ray Reynolds did not think there could be a more brutal, heartless killer than Latrice Descartes whom he had encountered fourteen years earlier. His thirteenth wedding anniversary dinner is interrupted by one of his detectives to tell him an old married acquaintance, who also happens to be a United States Senator, has been found murdered in the presence of a much younger woman and that both are missing their hearts. Ray becomes embroiled in another murder mystery that touches even closer to him than the one involving Latrice Descartes.

Twelve women are dead, and a thirteenth is missing. Detective Ray Reynolds races time to catch a killer. Nothing ties the victims together, except the way in which they died. What Ray discovers blows him away as the battle takes on a supernatural element. There's just one small catch - evidence points to Ray as the murderer. From a small town in Mississippi, Larkin Sloan is a dynamic young teacher in the equally small town of Eau Bouease, Louisiana. Abducted, she foregoes common sense and rational behavior in order to stay alive and not become the thirteenth victim of a serial killer.

An outstanding example of regional history