Slaughter, Karin

Atlanta, 1974. It's Kate Murphy's first day on the job and the Atlanta Police Department is seething after the murder of an officer. Before the day has barely begun, she already suspects she's not cut out for the job as a cop. Her male uniform is too big, she can't handle a gun, and she's rapidly learning that the APD is hardly a place that welcomes women. Worse still, in the ensuing manhunt, she'll be partnered with Maggie Lawson, a cop with her own ax to grind (and a brother and uncle already on the force)--a strategy meant to isolate Kate and Maggie from the action. But the move will backfire, putting them right at the heart of it.

Will Trent, an agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, is kept off the case of a missing college student by his supervisor, Deputy Director Amanda Wagner, for what appears to be no reason, until they are both drawn to an abandoned orphanage that is central to both Will's childhood and Amanda's first case as an investigator.

As Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents Faith Mitchell and Will Trent try to connect two murders to a hit-and-run victim, Atlanta physician Sara Linton becomes more involved in the investigation--an investigation which soon culminates in the hunt for a sadistic serial killer.

Dr. Sara Linton, who is both the county coroner and the local pediatrician, is running late for her weekly lunch at the local diner with her sister, Tessa. When she gets there, she goes to the washroom to freshen up and is met by a grisly sight. Sibyl Adams, a professor at the local college, is sitting in one of the stalls - stabbed and raped and barely alive.

In this follow-up to "Blindsighted," rural Georgia coroner Sara Liston, Police Chief Jeffrey Tolliver (who is also her ex-husband), and Detective Lena Adams look into the death of a young girl whose terrible secrets compelled her to commit public suicide.