In a bid to heal from the grief of a personal loss, forensic genealogist RaeJean Hunter takes on a straightforward case—identify human remains found on a nearby college campus, believed to be the 180-year-old remains of Mary Rogers, a woman who died mysteriously in 1841 and was believed to have been buried in the nearby cemetery that had washed away. It should be simple enough, a project to get her back in the game.
Unfortunately, it quickly becomes anything but.
Someone doesn't want RaeJean to investigate the puzzling death of the woman whose death inspired Edgar Allan Poe's "The Mystery of Marie Roget." As she follows clues through four states and discovers living family members who both help and hinder her search, she quickly realizes that the secrets of Mary Rogers's demise were never meant to be exposed.
As threats escalate and RaeJean and her family's lives become endangered, she's forced to follow every lead and use every skill she has to find the answers she needs before it's too late.
After all, what truths have been hidden for 180 years that would be worth bribery, kidnapping, and even murder?
RaeJean Hunter is about to find out.