When drug dealers murdered her lawman husband, Joanna Brady vowed she would keep on his good work no matter what the cost. With grit, courage, and dogged determination, she challenged the position quo-and won. Right now, as recently elected Sheriff of Cochise County, Az, she must fight the prejudice and hostility of a mistrustful, male-dominated police force and resolve a grisly dual homicide that threatens to tear the sleepy desert community to parts. For both bodies baking in the severe Southwestern sunlight are linked by sinister threads that reach back generations-and by devastating family members secrets of greed, hatred, and shocking abuse that could destroy the innocent along with the guilty.