The past comes full circle with a vengeance in this blistering thriller from Joe Hart, Wall Street Journal bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author of Or Else.

Family advocate Nora McTavish is no stranger to hardship and meeting trauma head on—it's part of what drives her to fight on behalf of those in need. So when the opportunity arises to track down and confront the mother who abandoned her as a child she decides to face the past and slay her demons once and for all.

But finding her mother is only the beginning of a journey that will take her from the gorgeous Gulf of California coastline, through the unforgiving desert of northern Mexico, and back to the mountains of Oregon—all in an effort to keep a young boy safe from an abusive father with unlimited resources and a wrath without bounds.

Before long Nora will be forced to confront not only a ruthless killer hell-bent on her destruction, but also the landscape of her own ravaged heart. And only one thing is for certain—she will never be the same again.