One cold November night when Kate White was fifteen years old, her friends held up a store. One of them killed an off-duty cop. They got away with it.

Thirteen years later, Kate has built a new life for herself. Now a single mother with a nine-year-old son, she is a prosecutor in the Philadelphia district attorney’s office.

Until the nightmare morning when violence explodes in her courtroom – and she comes face to face with the old friend who killed that cop so many years ago. Mario Castellanos offers her a deal. All Kate has to do is to make sure she’s the prosecutor when Mario’s case comes to court, then make sure she loses the case. Because if Mario goes to jail, he’ll name Kate as the killer and destroy her life.

Before real despair sets in, Mario is found dead in Kate’s house, and with Kate’s fingerprints on the pistol. Homicide detective Tom Braga shows up to investigate the murder and things get worse: she and Tom have clashed since she started working for the prosecutor’s office.

But then another man who knows the secret of Kate’s past turns up the heat. Kate’s life – and her son’s – are in danger. The only person she can turn to is Tom Braga.

Karen Robards’novels include the New York Times bestsellers Obsession , Bait , Vanished and Superstition . Have you read them all?

‘Robards delivers an intense novel that links an out-of-the-blue beginning with a dynamite ending in riveting and unexpected ways. With vibrant characters and a great plot, this is one of bestselling Robards’s best.’ — Booklist on Obsession (20080624)