14-year-old Amanda Creay arrives home from school one afternoon to find her mother murdered, her throat slit, her corpse brutalised, subjected to the most appalling torture before she died. A piece of incriminating evidence at the scene leads to the swift arrest of a local drug dealer. Case closed. But local cop Jack Cassian has questions. The victim, Elizabeth Creay, came from one of Washington's wealthiest and most powerful families. So why was she living in such a rough part of town? Why is her mother, the icily formidable Lydia Chapin, proving so hostile and unhelpful to the police investigation? Where is the dead woman's computer? The answers lead only to further questions - and before he knows it, Jack Cassian is unearthing disturbing secrets that sketch back more than fifty years. A shameful conspiracy that reaches into the highest levels of government. A dark secret that someone will kill to keep ...