Central Kansas Library System

When Detective Sergeant Duncan Hatcher is summoned to the home of Judge Cato Laird in the middle of the night to investigate a fatal shooting, he knows that discretion and kid-glove treatment are the keys to staying in the judge's good graces and keeping his job. At first glance, the case appears open-and-shut: Elise, the judge's trophy wife, interrupted a burglary in progress and killed the intruder in self-defense. But Duncan is immediately suspicious...

An elusive serial killer dubbed The Grave Robber is loose. Seeing the high-profile murders as her ticket out of small-town Savannah, ambitious reporter Nikki Gillette latches onto the case and onto lead investigator Pierce Reed. Tough-guy police detective Pierce initially sees Nikki's dogged investigations as a mere irritant until evidence turns up indicating that the killer may see Nikki as his prey.