A New Jersey bounty hunter with attitude, bail-bonds apprehension agent Stephanie Plum pursues a former vice cop, now on the run, with whom she shares a sordid history and a powerful chemistry.

A tenacious Manhattan police officer determined to stop a serial killer who leaves playing cards at the scenes of unrelated victims teams up with a brilliant professor whose book has been connected to the murders against a backdrop of high-profile tabloid speculation.

In this classic drawing room mystery, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is looking forward to celebrating his wedding anniversary at the remote, luxurious Manoir Bellechasse. As Gamache's holiday becomes a busman's anniversary, he learns that the seemingly peaceful lodge is a place where visitors come to escape their past, until that past catches up with them.