In this novel by the bestselling author of Retribution, a young prosecutor works a high-stakes murder trial with deeply personal implications.
Julia Valenciano is a young, ambitious Miami prosecutor. Assigned to a hectic trial division with an ornery judge, just getting through the day can be a challenge. When Julia is asked to second chair a case that could very well make or break her career, she doesn't hesitate to jump on board. The defendant: a successful Miami surgeon. The victims: his own wife and small children. The plea: Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity.
The perfect father. The perfect husband. Dr. David Marquette seemingly just snapped one night. Or did he? His defense team claims paranoid delusions caused by schizophrenia drove him to slaughter his entire family.
But the state suspects that Marquette's insanity defense is being fabricated to disguise murders that were cold-blooded and calculated. And the evidence appears to be mounting that Marquette may be responsible for other unsolved murders around the state as well—murders that bear the frightening signature of a serial killer.
It's Julia's first murder trial and her first insanity defense, and the stakes are incredibly high. If convicted, Marquette faces the ultimate penalty—death. If found insane, he could walk free. To bring a killer to justice, Julia will have to journey into the mind of madness herself. For her, the trial of Dr. David Marquette will mean more than just disarming a legal defense; it will take her on a personal journey back into her own past—a past she has struggled for fifteen years to forget. And it will bring her face to face with a future that is so frightening, she's not sure she ever wants to see it.
