Sheriff Joanna Brady is the law in Cochise County, and she will never allow her personal trials to interfere with the job she was elected to do -- especially now that death has invaded Bisbee, Arizona, and has shattered the small desert town's fragile peace.

A gun dealer has died violently, and his stock of high-powered weapons has been cleaned out. Suspicion falls upon rancher Alton Hosfield, an armed separatist at war with the federal government and the local law--with everyone, in fact, whom he perceives as a threat to his independent way of life.

Joanna Brady suspects the solution is not so cut-and-dried--especially when the cold-blooded slaying is followed by a series of others, equally horrific and perplexing. At best, an incendiary "Ruby Ridge" situation is brewing. At worst, a maniacal serial killer has come to feed on her unsuspecting community. But Joanna's preoccupation with bringing a murderer to justice could take a terrible toll on her private life...and unravel threads of family, love, and responsibility that might never again be retied.