New York Times bestselling author Sandra Brown is back with a spine-tingling story of murder and betrayal -- and a homicide detective's struggle with his own rules of conduct.

When Detective Sergeant Duncan Hatcher is summoned to the home of Judge Cato Laird in the middle of the night to investigate a fatal shooting, he knows that discretion and kid-glove treatment are the key to staying in the judge's good graces and keeping his job.

At first glance, the case appears open-and-shut: Elise, the judge's trophy wife, interrupted a burglary in progress and killed the intruder in self-defense. But Duncan is immediately suspicious of Elise's innocent act. And further investigation quickly puts Duncan's career in jeopardy -- because he can't deny his increasing attraction to Elisa Laird, even if she is a married woman, a proven liar, and a murder suspect.