When a serial killer shows up on Longboat Key after a twelve-year absence, Matt Royal is stymied. The first woman killed on Longboat Key has ties to a secretive government agency for which Matt's best friend, Jock Algren, works. Was this a coincidence or was she a targeted kill?

Matt's friend, Longboat Key detective Jennifer Diane (J.D.) Duncan, investigates the murders—but also seems to be a target of the killer. Why? And where has the killer been for the past twelve years? And why has he come to Longboat Key when his earlier kills were all in Miami? The mystery deepens when Guatemalan gangbangers try to kill Matt and J.D. and suspicions grow that Mexican drug cartels are somehow involved.

The director of Jock's agency orders him to do whatever is necessary to find the killer because of the death of the woman with connections to the agency. Will Jock simply take out the murderer or allow J.D. and the law to arrest, try, and convict the bad guys?

Matt's life is further complicated by J.D.'s growing dissatisfaction with island living—and her thoughts of returning to Miami.