When Sammy Jo Kendrick slips beneath the waves of Lake of the Woods, all hell breaks lose 500 miles away in Minneapolis. Sammy Jo is not the first young woman to vanish into the vast lake, but if her disappearance isn't solved, she won't be the last either. The Kendrick mystery threatens to drag down Minneapolis Detective Sergeant Will Danaher, the lead detective on the case. Despite his efforts, he has no suspect, no leads and no body. And the press and the politicians are putting Danaher at the top of the scapegoat list. But then, just when things couldn't get any worse, a bureaucrat in Personnel orders Danaher on vacation Through a fluke of fate, the detective winds up vacationing on Lake of the Woods where he crosses paths with a lonely lake cabin housewife, a grumpy old sheriff with his own dark secrets, and a dead guy; all of whom help Danaher piece together the Kendrick case. There's only one little problem; if he reveals how he gained his evidence, Danaher looks like a nut case. But if he doesn't reveal his sources, he looks like the prime suspect. In the meantime, there's a real serial killer out there... and he's already stalking his next victim. And it's someone close to Danaher...