Emerson Sinclare is a detective of the Holy City-Charleston, South Carolina, known as one of the first cities in America. It is steeped in tradition, with family names that go back before the Revolutionary War. Even today, the markers of history can still be found on every street corner. But hidden beneath the city's southern roots and hospitality lies a different story-one of crime, as might be found in any other twenty-first-century city in America. Sinclare is never lacking in cases. Recently a young girl jumped off the city's famous bridge. Another young man was found with his throat slit. And then there's the still unsolved murder of Sinclare's own wife. This last one haunts him, but he continues to hunt the criminals of his city with no mercy, following his own rules and using instinct to understand the criminal mind. For Sinclare, there is no class distinction; everyone is suspect when it comes to murder. He'll need all his knowledge of human nature to solve this newest murder. But things get personal as Sinclare suspects a recent death is somehow related to his wife's cold case. Even in the Holy City, evil abounds. Power and greed will shake Charleston to its core.