New York Times-bestselling author Steve Thayer introduces Deputy Pennington of the Kickapoo Falls, Wisconsin, Sheriff's Department, in a gripping story of sex, politics, and betrayal-where the lust for power leads one man through the explosive secrets of a small town. Maggie and Michael Butler are found naked and very dead in a Wisconsin wheat field, murdered by two vicious shotgun blasts. No one ever gets murdered in Kickapoo Falls, and it is up to Deputy Pennington, the trusted number-two man in the Sheriff's Department, to find the killer. Pennington had loved Maggie from afar ever since high school, but he has a hard time holding on to his fantasy when he discovers what the real Maggie was mixed up in. The town's ruling elite close ranks as Pennington zeros in on the truth. He is convinced the answer lies back in the wheat field, and in a missing reel of movie film that will shut the door on the murder investigation but open another into a far-reaching assassination plot set for election night. Steve Thayer saves the best for last, standing the plot on its head with a twist that readers will never see coming-and will never forget.