Elvis Cole's relationship with attorney Lucy Chenier is strained. When she moved from Louisiana to join Elvis in Los Angeles, she never dreamed that violence would so easily touch her life. But then the unthinkable happens. While Lucy is away on business and her ten-year-old son, Ben, is staying with Elvis, Ben disappears without a trace. Desperate to believe that the boy has run away, Elvis soon receives a phone call that suggests a much darker scenario.
Joining forces with his enigmatic partner, Joe Pike, Elvis frantically searches for Ben with the help of LAPD Detective Carol Starkey, even as Lucy's wealthy, oil-industry ex-husband attempts to wrest away control of the investigation. Amid the maelstrom of personal conflicts, Elvis and Joe are forced to consider a troubling and recurring possibility - that Ben's disappearance is not random, but is connected to a terrible long-held secret from Elvis Cole's past.
Venturing deep inside a complex psyche, Robert Crais explores Elvis's search for family - the military that embraced him as a troubled adolescent, his rock-solid partnership with Pike, and his floundering relationship with Lucy - as he races the clock in his search for Ben.