Alexa Williams is a successful lawyer, volunteers weekly at a women's clinic, and has a sexy weekend boyfriend-not to mention an endearing best friend in her giant English mastiff, Scout. But one autumn day, when Scout takes off into the Pennsylvania woods, Alexa discovers a nightmare she'd never imagined. From that fateful day, Alexa becomes entangled in a murder mystery-one that she tries to unravel by linking it to experiences and symbols in her own life. Dewilla Noakes, a child of the Depression, has recently lost her mother. Her father, packs up the girls-and their attractive cousin,...

When a beloved state senator plunges to his death at Alexa Williams' feet in the Capitol Rotunda, the authorities suspect suicide. Although the powerful chair of the Environmental Resources and Energy Committee was at the center of a controversial new bill to expand hydraulic fracturing, he was also rumored to be ill. Shaken, Alexa tries to move past the disturbing incident by concentrating on work. She's leading a senate commission on sex trafficking. Plus, she's helping an old college roommate sue a natural gas company for their role in causing her daughter's rare cancer.

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