Cochise County sheriff Joanna Brady investigates the death of a handicapped woman who had wandered away from a care facility with a suspicious track record, and the deaths of an elderly couple who were presumably consenting partners in a suicide pact.

While Sheriff Joanna Brady is coping with the impending delivery of her second child as well as a staff shortage, two serious crimes are committed. The body of an unidentified man is found in the desert strangely mutilated. Then one of Joanna's officers is brutally attacked. Joanna will risk everything to see that the perpetrators of these crimes are brought to justice.

"When Jennifer Brady returns to Northern Arizona University for her sophomore year, she quickly becomes a big sister to her new roommate, Beth Rankin, a brilliant yet sheltered sixteen-year-old freshman. For a homeschooled Beth, college is her first taste of both freedom and unfettered access to the internet, and Jenny is concerned that she's too naïve and rebellious for her own good. Her worries are well-founded because one day Beth vanishes, prompting...