When a young woman is found strangled to death and left on a park bench in Santa Rosa, California, Detective Eddie Mahler and his Violent Crime Investigations Team are called to the scene. The crime immediately thrusts Mahler back to two unsolved homicides—young women who were also strangled—at this same location a couple of years earlier. He knows who was responsible, but his inability to find evidence to stop the serial killer has haunted him ever since.

Now suffering from chronic migraines that affect his vision, Mahler has secretly lost faith in the investigation process, and must rely more than ever on his team. Its newest member, Eden Somers, is a former FBI analyst whose ability to completely immerse herself in the evidence of a case proves both a gift and a curse. While Eden dives deep into the cold case evidence, the rest of the team chase leads to identify the latest victim, and discover that her death might be the work of a new killer altogether.

Now Mahler and his team are fighting on two fronts to discover who stole the very breath from these women, and to stop the killer before he silences another victim.

Introducing the Violent Crime Investigations Team, a modern series of hardboiled crime fiction, taking on the very worst of California crime.