Lieutenant Jonathan Stride knows his partner, Maggie Bei, is definitely in big trouble when she reviews a fatal crime on a bitter winter evening. She’s obviously hiding a terrible top secret, and her silence just feeds suspicion. But Maggie isn’t the only person keeping secrets in Duluth. A seductive youthful woman has disappeared, leaving behind a stash of lurid fantasies and a cryptic message: “I know who it really is.”

Following a twisted trail, Stride uncovers a sordid web of violence and voyeurism that someone is willing to kill for to keep hidden. His lover, Serena Dial, a homicide cop converted private investigator, is running after a blackmailer who knows all the city’s dirty secrets, also Maggie’s. But mainly because Stride and Serena search for a killer, a predator is normally hunting them, with a terrifying arrange for revenge.