Murder is visceral and viscous...Like dye to cloth...It changes you...Sticks to you...It won't let you go. Private investigator Neil Ames knows that better than anyone. Twenty years after the murder of his fiancée, Emily Granger-and the war that left him fractured-he survives on routine: he sketches to quiet the noise, quotes Sherlock Holmes to impose order on chaos, and dismantles corporate corruption in the rain-soaked Pacific Northwest. When investigative reporter Katherine Sterling, Emily's best friend, is murdered, Neil's fragile equilibrium is shattered, reopening old wounds. The murder draws Neil back into a world he tried to leave behind-a decision that teams him up with Octavia Clarke, a charismatic, savvy, and cane wielding nightclub owner, with a talent for reading tells and drawing out what others try to conceal. When another brutal murder occurs, what began as a local homicide spirals into something far larger: a trail leading from handcrafted luxury sneakers to environmental sabotage ... and into the guarded boardrooms of a powerful Japanese conglomerate. As they inch closer to the chilling truth, Neil and Octavia find themselves in the crosshairs. The line between past and present blurs, threatening to unravel what remains of their own histories and turning Neil's hunt for the truth into something far more personal-a quest for atonement and redemption.