Approached by an Israeli police officer who is tailing a man in possession of a stolen religious relic, Virgil Flowers learns that the artifact reveals startling details about the biblical King Solomon and that dangerous rivals are killing everyone who would protect it.

When a murder suspect commits suicide after his arrest for killing a soybean farmer, Virgil Flowers uncovers a multi-generation, multi-family conspiracy involving a series of monstrous crimes.

"In southeast Minnesota, down on the Mississippi, a school board meeting is coming to a close. The board chairman announces that the rest of the meeting will be closed, due to personnel issues. "Issues" is correct. The proposal up for a vote before them is whether a local reporter should die. And the vote is four to one in favor. Meanwhile, not far away, Virgil Flowers is doing a favor for a friend by looking into a dognapping, which seems to be turning...

Jimmy Sharp, Becky Welsh, TomMcCall. They were Bonnie and Clyde, they thought, and what's-his-name, the sidekick. Three teenagers with dead-end lives, and chips on their shoulders, and guns. The first person they killed was a highway patrolman. The second was a woman during a robbery. Then, hell, why not keep on going? As their crime spree cuts a swath through rural Minnesota, some of it is captured on the killers' cell phones and sent to a local...

While Joe Gunther takes time off to care for his mother, the FBI investigates three cases involving a roommate's murder by contract, the cold-case double murder of a state trooper and a motorist, and an act of sabotage on military equipment.

Investigating the murder of his employer's illegitimate son, political fixer Joe DeMarco begins to question the guilt of a chief suspect when he realizes that someone has been interfering with the case's witnesses.