After nine years of exile from her estranged, wealthy family, Sydney Chapin returns to Washington, D.C., hoping to find reconciliation--until her journalist sister is brutally killed. Now the stunned and devastated Sydney seeks justice and vows to uncover the truth behind her sister's death. Investigating this monstrous crime, detectives Jack Cassian and Darius Train suspect that this murder has a dark, hidden dimension. But secrets are nothing new in the District, where the best and worst of humanity nestle side by side in marble halls and on rubble-strewn streets. As the personal lives of cops and victims become intertwined, three people will becaught in a terrifying conspiracy with its roots in the arrogance of money, the burdens of power, and the secrets of...

AMANDA KNEW SOMETHING was wrong as the Metro ap proached the stop at Eastern Market. The premonition swept through her like a chill on a summer night, unex pected and unwelcome, making her scalp tingle. Nancy noticed the change in her friend's demeanor and, eager to help, offered a salve. "Billy Slevan likes you," she said.