Portland homicide detective Skin Kadash just wants to survive cancer treatment so he can get back to work. But when his partner tries to drag him into an unofficial investigation of a series of deaths, he s not interested he s dead-dog sick and doesn t need the grief until she tells him the victims all suffered from cancer themselves, and all shared one grim thing in common with Skin. His doctor.

The police have closed the books on the deaths, all apparent suicides, yet a mysterious young woman, daughter of the first victim, surfaces and insists that the dead men were all murdered. Before her story can be probed more deeply, she disappears, leaving Kadash with no support from the cops and little to go on except a nagging belief the missing woman knew more than she revealed.

Kadash is left to chase elusive leads among the bitter and broken widows of the dead men. Struggling with his own illness and with a growing rift between himself and his partner, Kadash finds himself entangled in a web of resentment, jealousy, and deceit. Ultimately, he finds that not is he only seeking a missing woman and the truth about the dead men, but also the meaning of his own life in the face of his impending mortality....

Peter McKrall is at a crossroads–out of work, fighting a klepto habit, and trying to figure out his next move. Life takes an unexpected turn when a search for his niece's stuffed dog leads him to something else entirely: a bullet-riddled corpse. Talking to reporters lands Peter on the local news, which turns out to be a dangerous spotlight. And now Darla, the troubled daughter of the victim, is reaching out to him–but can she be trusted? When a second murder takes place and evidence is planted in his trash, the cops dredge up Peter's painful history. The only ray of sunshine in this harrowing nightmare is Ruby Jane, whose warm smile melts the winter chill.

An unwitting player in a bizarre chain of events, Peter has no idea that the deranged killer is after him–until he takes a shot at Ruby Jane....