A follow-up to Natchez Burning finds Southern lawyer Penn Cage desperately struggling to protect his father from false charges and corrupt officers by confronting the puppet master behind the Double Eagles terrorist group.

A deep river pit in Natchez, Mississippi, reputed to be the hiding spot for Jean Lafitte's hidden treasure and a dumping ground for numerous murder victims, becomes the site of a dangerous showdown for Penn Cage.

Professional mountaineer Lily is building a new life for herself--in ways she never would have expected. She's traded the mountain wilderness of Wyoming for the lush river country of the deep South, where she is busy restoring a fine old Natchez, Mississippi house. And she's rediscovered happiness with Matt Starr, the man she has always loved. But Lily's dreams for the future are suddenly threatened when Matt disappears without a trace. Fearing foul...

"The bloody Civil War has ended at last, and Marshal Ridge Parkman is looking forward to visiting his family at last in exhausted, war-torn western Missouri. But no sooner has he settled in to relax and catch up on things, than whimsical fate drops a mission in front of him that he can hardly ignore. The next thing he knows, he's on a steamboat heading down the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. His assignment is to track a father-son team who are fleeing...