"The abduction of eight-year-old Josh Kirkwood sent small-town Deer Lake, Minnesota, into a tailspin. Even now, after the arrest of a suspect and the return of the boy, fear maintains its grip and questions linger. What happened to Josh in the hands of his kidnapper? Why has he not spoken a word since his return, not even to name his abductor? Is the nightmare over or just beginning?"--BOOK JACKET. "Assistant County Attorney Ellen North knows her assignment to the Kirkwood case has landed her in the hot seat - a position she thought she'd left behind in the crime-choked Minneapolis court system. But politics and ulterior motives abound even in rural Park County. And if there was any hope of controlling the media frenzy, it is shattered when Ellen's boss grants full access of the case to bestselling true-crime writer Jay Butler Brooks. Now, as Ellen prepares for the trial of her career with an ex-lover arguing for the defense, her every move will be shadowed by Brooks, a man as mysterious as the case itself. All the while, another shadow follows Ellen with deadly intent. It is a soul-chilling whispered voice on the telephone. A knife-etched obscenity on the door of her car. The finger on the trigger of an apparent suicide..."--BOOK JACKET.