In this startling departure from his most recent Charlie Hood books (ending the series with 2013's The Famous and the Dead), T Jefferson Parker enters new territory with a novel reminiscent of John Steinbeck at his best. Patrick Norris returns to rural California after serving with the US Army in Iraq. Fire has ravaged his home farm and it has all become too much for his parents and brother to manage. The country has changed though, notably after the mass killings of children in schools across the United States, invariably by lone gunmen, and a great tension exists in the people. Is there really a case for an even wider ownership of guns? Patrick's brother, Ted, hasn't had it easy in life. Health conditions have slowed him down and set him apart. Ted worships Patrick, and Patrick knows he has to be an example, but settling down to the country life cannot be easy after Iraq. When a child is mown down by an unknown driver suspicion takes over Fallbrook. There will be deaths before it is all resolved, perhaps many and perhaps the death of innocents
