Alex Cross left his hometown, and some family tragedies for a better life with Nana mama and Washington dc. He hasn't looked back. Now ask cousin is accused of Unthinkable murder, and cross returns to Starkville North Carolina for the first time and 35 years. He discovers a community down on its luck, local residency don't welcome him, and countless memories from his horrific childhood. He brings all his skill to find another truth about his cousin's case. The truth is hard to come by in a town with no one feels safe to speak. Jason ghost takes cross to the sugar cane fields of florida, where he pulled into a case meeting his kind of expertise, a string of socialite murders with ever more Grizzly sentence. He's chasing too many ends, a brutal killer, the truth about his own past, and justice for his cousin, and any one of the answers might be fatal.