Engineer Tory Travers reluctantly worked with police detective David Alvarez in Engineered for Murder to determine who wanted to kill her so badly that either a bullet or a wrecking ball would suffice. Then, in Framework for Death, she helped Alvarez uncover the cause of a residential structural collapse concealing two bodies. Now Tory needs David's help again when she discovers a woman's body has been stuffed in a manhole while she's inspecting a community development site -- and she wants to help in order to speed things up: the city officials who contracted her company to inspect the storm sewers will undoubtedly hold up her check until after the case has been solved.

The body turns out to belong to a contentious city employee who vehemently opposed affirmative action programs. Years before, the Hispanic contractor who built the now-abandoned subdivision apparently committed suicide -- or was it really murder? Did the dead woman know something about it? Or maybe the past had nothing to do with it -- perhaps the recent return of her ex-husband was a plan for revenge; or perhaps her political views finally sent someone over the edge -- like the son of the dead contractor, who knows something, but doesn't want to reveal his information to Tory or David.

But David and Tory think the past had everything to do with the woman's demise, and find themselves unraveling deadly strings that go way back in time ...

Genre: Mystery