Another violent and lyrical crime novel from the master, set in the harshly beautiful landscape of south Texas where Sherrif Hackberry Holland (hero of RAIN GODS) is facing more drug-fuelled murder and mayhem from across the Mexican border.Sheriff Hackberry Holland patrols a small Southwest Texas border town with a deep and abiding respect for the citizens in his care. Still mourning the loss of his cherished wife and locked in a perilous almost-romance with his Deputy Pam Tibbs, a woman many decades his junior, Hackberry feeds off of the deeds of evil men to keep his own demons at bay. When alcoholic ex-boxer Danny Boy Lorca witnesses a man tortured to death in the desert and reports it, Hack's investigation leads him to the home of Anton Ling, who is known for sheltering illegals. Ling denies having seen the victims or perpetrators, but there is something in her steely demeanour and aristocratic beauty that compels Hackberry to return to her home again and again as the investigation unfolds. Could it be that the Sheriff is so taken in by this creature who reminds him of his deceased wife, that he would ignore the possibility that she is just as dangerous as the men she harbours?