New York Times bestseller John Lescroart delivers a dark, intimate thriller about the price we put on family and the terrible costs of seeking the truth.

Raised by loving adoptive parents, San Francisco private investigator Wyatt Hunt never had an interest in finding his birth family-until he gets a chilling text message from an unknown number: "How did ur mother die?"

The answer is murder, and urged on by curiosity and the mysterious texter, Hunt takes on a case he never knew existed, one that has lain unsolved for decades. His family's dark past unfurls in dead ends. Child Protective Services, who suspected but could never prove that Hunt was being neglected, is uninformed; his birth father, twice tried but never convicted of the murder, is in hiding; Evie, his mother's drug-addicted religious fanatic of a friend, is untraceable. And who is the texter, and how are they connected to Hunt?

Yet in the present, time is running out. The texter, who insists the killer is out there, refuses to be identified. The cat-and-mouse game leads Hunt across the country and eventually to places far more exotic-and far more dangerous. As the chase escalates, so does the threat, for the killer has a secret that can only be trusted to the grave. Thriller master John Lescroart weaves a shocking, suspenseful tale about the skeletons inside family closets . . . and the mortal danger outside the front door.

When the bullet-ridden body of a Silicon Valley billionaire washes up on shore, assistant D.A. Dismas Hardy finds himself the prosecutor in San Francisco's murder trial of the century. But when a bizarre series of events blows the case wide open, Hardy finds himself on the other side of the law.

In his new life as a bartender at the Little Shamrock, Dismas Hardy is just hoping for a little peace. He's left both the police force and his law career behind. Unfortunately it's not as easy to leave behind the memory of a shattering personal loss-but for the time being, he can always take the edge off with a stiff drink and round of darts. But when the news of Eddie Cochran's death reaches him, Hardy is propelled back into all the things he was trying to escape. Now he must untangle a web of old secrets and raw passions, for the sake of Eddie's pregnant widow Frannie-and for the others whose lives may still be at risk.

Soldier. Cop. Lawyer. Dismas Hardy’s done the tough jobs, and had some tough luck. Now he’s kicking back and tending bar at the Shamrock in San Francisco. But the past returns in the form of Rusty Ingraham—a former fellow prosecutor who drops by for a drink, warning Hardy that a perp they put away nearly ten years ago just got released…and might still be looking for revenge. Next thing Hardy knows, Ingraham’s houseboat becomes a murder scene, with a dead woman on board and Ingraham, presumably, at the bottom of the bay. To save himself, Hardy’s got to solve the case. But there’s more than one kind of payback, and it’s not just the ex-con who might have wanted it. Now, as he tangles with a mob enforcer, a rejected lover, and a renegade cop, Hardy is haunted by the knowledge that the later you pay, the steeper the price...

Unbeknownst to her husband, Frannie has just appeared before a grand jury--and refused to share a crucial piece of information about her friend Ron, who’s accused of killing his wife. Now it’s up to Dismas to race the clock and find a culprit, all the while wondering: Why would his wife go to jail to protect another man? Who really killed Bree Beaumont--and why? He’s looking for the truth. But he’s not quite sure he wants to find it…