In a secluded cabin in rural Massachusetts, six young men stage a deadly standoff with FBI and ATF agents. When dust from the flying bullets finally settles, three agents are wounded, one fatally, and five suspects are dead.
In a wooded are in Washington D.C. the body of a senator's daughter is discovered. Dead by strangulation, the young woman is left artfully posed, her clothes folded neatly beside her.
At first, criminal profiler Maggie O'Dell and her partner R.J. Tully can find no connection between the cases. But as they delve deeper, they learn that there is a connection between the crimes: Reverend Joseph Everett. The charismatic leader of a high-profile religious sect, Everett has cultivated a devoted following. The young men holed up in the cabin were members of Everett's church, and the murder of the young woman took place following a religious rally Everett held in the capital.
The key to unravelling the significance of these two crimes is Everett himself. But he is untouchable, living on a heavily guarded compound the police are unable to penetrate. Maggie may have found a way to get to Everett: by using her own mother, a member of his church.
Is Everett a psychotic madman, or is he merely a scapegoat for a cunning and disciplined killer? Maggie realises too late that there is more going on her than the FBI ever imagined . . . and her own mother may be about to pay the price.
