The quiet little south Georgia town of Mercy is rocked
by the brutal murder of one of its most unassuming citizens. Within hours of
the discovery of the crime, the remains of another victim are found in the
Blood River. And then another. Things
like this simply don’t happen in Mercy.
Until they do.
Police Chief Buck Lawson is still finding his way
around his new hometown and his new job, but he is no stranger to the savagery
that appears to be stalking the residents of Mercy once again. The black waters
of the Blood River have a reputation as a killing field that goes back
centuries, and Buck has seen for himself the kind of predator they attract.
While struggling with civil unrest, departmental
incompetence, and unintentional interference from state investigators, Buck comes
upon a set of twenty-year-old crimes that suggest a pattern. Has the same killer returned to Mercy
now? And has he done so many, many times
in the past?