To Alberg, the death of Benjamin Strachan was baffling. Had his ultimely demise been precipitated by a drunken fall down his estranged sister's besement stairs? Or something far more sinister?

Alberg's search for the truth takes him to British Columbia's Sunshine Coast--and into the secluded home of Zoe Strachan, a woman of seductive beauty and shattering secrets. At the same time, Alberg investigates the sudden disappearance of an elderly widow from a village nursing home... a disappearance he doesn't connect with the Strachan case until it is almost too late---and the two seemingly unrelated events converge in a chilling act of violence and evil that will challenge Alberg's utmost powers of perception as a detective--and as a man.