James Hartman

Lure James Hartman

"Things like this don't happen here." Except they do. Saturday mornings are usually quiet in St. Tammany Parish, but before Chief Nicole "Nick" Brooks' children are even awake, she starts getting calls. A fisher has reeled in a gruesome catch that crosses jurisdictional lines and yields few clues as to its origin. An anonymous caller leads deputies and detectives to an upscale neighborhood where a man appears to have died from autoerotic asphyxia - but the house reveals secrets that disturb even the most seasoned investigators. With police stretched thin, shots are fired through the doors of a church, barely missing a pastor preparing for the next day's worship. Nick struggles to manage her resources - and her temper - as the challenges mount and the cases converge. To make matters worse, Margaret Karikas and her team of reporters keep popping up, but with so many crime scenes it's hard to know what - and where - matters most.