Former U.S. Senator Quintrell is dead. His son， New Mexico s governor， is preparing his run for the highest political office in the land. And dark family secrets are about to explode with the devastating force of a Southwestern earthquake. An eccentric Quintrell aunt has invited genealogist Carolina "Carly" May to their Taos compound to compile a record of the illustrious family. But digging into the past is raising troubling questions about a would-be president s private life . . . and the grisly street crime that left his drug-addicted sister dead. As a dark world of twisted passions and depravity slowly opens up before Carly， there is no one whom she dares trust -- perhaps least of all Dan Duran， a dangerous， haunted enigma who s tied to the Quintrells history. But she will need an ally to survive the terrible mysteries a father carried to the grave -- because following the bloodlines of the powerful can be a bloody business. And some dead secrets can kill.