“America’s very best novelist” (The Denver Post ) brings back one of his most fascinating characters- Tx sheriff Hackberry Holland, cousin to lawman Billy Bob Holland-in this heart-pounding bestseller.

Inside a heat-cracked border town, the bodies of nine illegal aliens-women and girls, wiped out execution-style-are unearthed within a shallow grave. Haunted with a previous he can’t shake and his own personal demons, Hack efforts to untangle the grisly case, which may lead to more bloodshed. Damaged young Iraq veterinarian Pete Flores, who saw too much before fleeing the crime scene, and his partner, Vikki Gaddis, are working because of their lives. Sorting through the lowlifes who are hunting down Pete, and with Preacher Jack Collins, a Godfearing serial killer for hire, in the combine, Hack is swept up in a terrifying race for survival-for Pete, Vikki, and himself.