When millionaire Chaz Smith is mercilessly gunned down, Lindsay Boxer discovers that the murder weapon is linked to the deaths of four of San Francisco's most untouchable criminals. Then she's called next to the most bizarre crime scene she's ever witnessed: two bodiless heads elaborately displayed in the garden of a world-famous actor.

When celebrated couple Isa and Ethan Bailey become the victims of a murder in which no evidence is left at the scene, Lindsay Boxer begins an investigation, while reporter Cindy Thomas probes the killing of a preacher who may not have been as saintly as he appeared.

When a friend becomes the latest victim in a string of murders linked by bizarre crime-scene snake paintings, San Francisco homicide detective Frost Easton is drawn into a cat-and-mouse game with the most formidable adversary of his career.

A knock on the door in the middle of the night. It can only be bad news, and it is: Sharon's father Elwood has been the victim of a vicious, racially-motivated attack. A nationally recognized Shoshone Indian artist, he'd been visiting Sharon for the holidays, browsing for gifts in San Francisco's exclusive Marina district when he was set upon by a mob of angry young men. Now, Elwood lies in a coma, hovering between life and death. With little progress...