Private Investigator Martina Monroe has no room for grief. Nearly a year after she failed to prevent her husband’s death, a battered woman depends on her for safety. But when she arrives too late and finds the female dead, the tormented detective’s only solace is a deeper relationship with the bottle. Struggling with sobriety and doing her job, Martina still has to protect another client battling a stalker. And if she doesn’t get her act together soon, one more victim may pay the price for her mistakes.

Two days ago, FBI Agent Val Costa came face to face with a serial killer known as the Bear. One of only two women ever to survive, she's forever branded with his signature: a curling “S” carved into her skin. Val knows it’s only a matter of time before he takes another victim. Forced home to recover, Val returns to Red Rose County, California, to be with her son. But the very next day she finds the close-knit community panic-stricken over the disappearance of blonde-haired, freckled-faced local teen, Scarlett Douglas.

Allison Smythe is barely clinging to sanity. After blaming and nearly killing an innocent man for her sister’s unsolved kidnapping, she’s ready to consider a fresh start. But just as she’s settled in a new city, she’s horrified to spot the villain who took her sibling residing peacefully on her street. Arguing with the police over the need for more evidence and with her therapist about her deteriorating mental health, Allison grits her teeth and attacks the dangerous problem alone. But the more she digs, the more questions she unearths…

Amy has terrible taste in men. She's dated guys who cheated on her, beat her, and threatened to kill her, but none of them come close to Mark. At first, Mark is the ideal boyfriend—kind, smart, attractive, and funny. But as their relationship deepens, the charming facade crumbles showing his true colors. He calls her all the time. He gets angry if she doesn't respond to his messages within minutes. He gets irrationally jealous and possessive. By the time Amy decides to leave Mark, it's already too late. He knows too much about her, and he'll stop at nothing to keep her to himself.

The annual fall party on Silent Ridge Road is supposed to be a celebration of community—an entire day of drinking cider, sharing laughs, and forgetting any tension that's been simmering beneath the surface all year. But beneath the festive décor, polite smiles, and pumpkin-spiced charm of this small-town block lies a tangled web of deceit, obsession, and death. The neighbors are hiding dangerous secrets.