From the New York Times bestselling author and former James Bond novelist comes a gritty, riveting tale of modern crime, featuring a female FBI agent embroiled in a Russian human trafficking case. Chicago Special Agent Annie Marino examines the case of a dead young woman who possesses a tattoo Annie has come across before-that of bloody bear claws. Several deceased women with the tattoo have turned up over the past few years, all suspected of being involved in a vast human trafficking operation. Annie's neighborhood friend, Jason Ward, is a young writer engaged to be married into an upper-class family from a posh Chicago suburb. Jason believes his future brother-in-law, a war veteran, is definitely a bully-but does he also have ties to the Russian mob? Yana Kravec, a woman from St. Petersburg, Russia, has been fraudulently lured into a trafficking scheme and thrown into a horrid and seemingly hopeless situation. She is, however, determined to fight back and escape her captors. Annie's investigation eventually uncovers a sordid plot of procuring slaves overseas and marketing them in the US. Her interests soon coincide with those of Jason and Yana, bringing the trio together to fight against a deadly network of criminals. As the separate lives of these characters collide, their paths ultimately converge in a night of terror and survival in a Michigan forest, where they become the prey of evil men who will stop at nothing to protect their secrets.

Author Biography

Raymond Benson is most well-known for being the third-and first American-author to be commissioned by the James Bond literary estate to write the 007 novels between 1996-2002. He has been called "a first class thriller craftsman" by Lee Child and "one of the best thriller writers in the business" by David Morrell. He is the author of thirty-six books, including the New York Times bestselling The Black Stiletto series, now in development as a feature film, and most recently The Secrets on Chicory Lane. Benson lives in Chicago, Illinois.