While investigating two separate cases, Sheriff Joanna Brady must discover if the death of a family friend whose body was found in a limestone cavern is linked to the discovery of a fortune in $100 bills hidden in the house of a hoarder.

"The blood at the scene belies any suggestion of an 'honorable death.' Yet, to the eyes of the Seattle police, a successful Japanese software magnate died exactly as he wished--and by his own hand, according to the ancient rite of seppuku. Homicide Detective J.P. Beaumont can't dismiss what he sees as an elaborate suicide, however, not when something about it makes his flesh crawl. Because small errors in the ritual suggest something darker: a killer...

When a young woman falls to her death from an unfinished skyscraper, Seattle Homicide Detective J. P. Beaumont suspects murder--especially when the body count starts to rise and the investigation leads him to an ironworkers' union headquarters.

Life has shifted for J. P. Beaumont. After a tragic accident that devastated and ultimately disbanded his Special Homicide Investigation Team, he accepts that he has left homicide detection behind at this point, but he has a lot of unanticipated free time on his hands. He's keeping busy with renovations on the new house that he and his wife, Mel Soames, the newly appointed chief of police in Bellingham, Washington, have bought. But new fixtures and...

Ali Reynolds is contacted to investigate the murder of a gold-digging divorcě on behalf of Lynn Martinson who is dating the dead woman's ex-husband, when she becomes drawn to the case of A.J. Sanders, a frightened teen with secrets of his own, after he finds the body in the desert while retrieving a mysterious box buried by his absent father.

Jance keeps former L.A. TV news anchor Ali Reynolds in her native Arizona for her third lead appearance (following Web of Evil). Ali, still recovering from the murder of her not-quite-ex-husband, is aided by her parents and her old high school chum, newly divorced detective and marine reservist Dave Holman. Meanwhile, wealthy, reclusive Arabella Ashcroft, whose family's college scholarship program supported Ali as an undergrad, has read Ali's grief-filled...

Two family tragedies 50 years apart challenge J.P. Beaumont, Seattle investigator for the Washington Special Homicide Investigation Team. The state attorney general assigns Beaumont a cold case after a nun, Sister Mary Katherine, reports horrific dreams that indicate a long-repressed memory of witnessing a murder. But he's distracted when the former wife of his best friend, Ron Peters, is killed and suspicion falls on Ron's family, causing havoc....

Cochise County Shreiff Joanna Brady's personal and profession worlds collide when her daughter, Jenny, stumbles across the body of her high school principal.

Seattle detective J.P. Beaumont investigates a murder case that intersects with a cold case being pursued by his lover, Mel. The tension levels are high as Beaumont and Mel unravel a conspiracy involving prominent city officials.