To the outside world, Cypress Springs, Louisiana, is a postcard-perfect town where moral, decent citizens lead safe, wholesome lives. But outsiders, it seems, don't fare so well . . .

When journalist Avery Chauvin returns home to Cypress Springs, Louisiana, after twelve years, it's as if time has stood still. Yet for her everything has changed -- her mother died a year ago and now her father is gone. Devastated by her father's suicide and her inability to save him, Avery has taken a leave of absence from her newspaper job to come back and put his affairs in order. But in truth, she has come looking for answers. How could her father, a physician who dedicated himself to preserving life, have taken his own?

As Avery begins the heartbreaking task of cleaning out her parents' home, she discovers a box of fifteen-year-old newspaper articles covering the same event -- the brutal murder of a young woman in Cypress Springs. Why, she wonders, did her father keep the clippings?

Then Avery meets a newcomer to Cypress Springs -- a woman looking into her brother's sudden disappearance and into whispered rumors of strange happenings in town. Soon the events of the past and present take on a terrifying new meaning for Avery. A woman is found savagely murdered. An outsider passing through town vanishes. Neighbors go missing in the night.

Determined to get to the truth, Avery soon discovers that each layer of deceit she exposes is somehow linked to that long-ago murder -- and to her father. Could he have been murdered?

Uncertain where to turn and whom to trust, Avery must face the fact that in this peaceful Southern town a terrible evil lives, protected -- until now -- by the power of silence.

Erica Spindler weaves a chilling tale of murder, betrayal and uncertain loyalties as she explores the razor edge between good and evil in a novel that will keep you turning the pages long into the night.