Low-rent lawyer Victor Carl has been hired to wrap things up after the suicide of heiress Jacqueline Shaw. He soon finds, however, that she did not kill herself at all, but was murdered. Thrown into a web of deceit and danger, Carl races against time to untangle the truth, a mission that will carry him from Philadelphia to the jungles of Belize and back again.
The solution to the murder, Carl realises, lies in unravelling the true story of Shaw's wealthy and secretive family, a story that grows more and more gothic and grisly as he moves back along the family tree.
Add to the mix a crime war that Victor stumbles into, a mysterious new age cult, and an eccentric cast of supporting characters, and you have the recipe for a white-knuckle ride of a thriller from one of the most exciting new writers in American fiction.
