In the first case Marshall Foreham is introduced to a rather gruesome kidnap/murder of a young college girl. Her father is a high profile city manager who decides to give the kidnapper the ransom without notifying the authorities. The victim is savagely killed. Suspects are many and varied.
Her next case involves a hated retired bank manager of a small town who, on a senior outing, is shot between the eyes on the coast of Oregon. A grocery list of suspects is methodically sorted out with a surprise perpetrator at the end.
The third case is surrounded by a religious shroud. A body is found enclosed in a wooden crate containing a new church pew. Two other bodies are similarly found murdered across the USA. Marshall Stacy Foreham is confronted with victims that have been ID mutilated preventing a starting place for investigation. The results are far reaching into the hierarchy of a church preventing certain segments of society from spreading the word of God. Additionally a police turf war between a city homicide detective and Marshall Foreham results in a shoot out confrontation.