Lucas Davenport has seen many terrible murder scenes but this has to be one of the worst. In the small Minnesota town of Deephaven, and entire family has been killed -- husband, wife two daughters, even the dogs, all butchered in the most horrific possible way. There's something about the scene that pokes at Lucas' cop instincts -- it looks an awful lot like the kind of scorched-earth retribution he's seen in drugs killings sometimes. But this is a seriously upscale town, and the husband was an executive vice president at a big back. It just doesn't seem to fit -- Until it does. And where it leads Lucas will take him into the darkest nightmare of his life.