Attorney Nina Reilly needs a fresh start. In three years as a sole practitioner, she’s taken on some of Lake Tahoe’s most controversial cases and has turned her struggling one-woman law firm into a thriving practice. Now she’s ready to sort out her complex relationship with P. I. Paul van Wagoner, so she heads to Carmel Valley.

Within days, Nina feels the heat, as new wealth and old families collide in the idyllic California sunshine.

Two suspicious fires ravage the forest. A third fatal blaze gets the authorities interested in gentle Wish Whitefeather, Paul’s protegé, son of Sandy, her assistant. The dead man’s one of Wish’s old cronies from youth. He hated change in the Valley.

Nina and Paul dig into a community steeped in secrets and rage, a tangled history between two men, and a killer with dark, wrenching motives.

“Nina Reilly is burning up the courtroom again…a fiery read.” –Entertainment Weekly  

“Counselor Nina Reilly keeps on…getting better. Generous heart, steel-trap brain, elegant looks: great fun to read about.” –Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Well-rounded and likable characters set against a richly described backdrop of some of the loveliest country in the world.” –Publisher’s Weekly