Lucas Davenport has seen many terrible murder scenes. This is one of the worst. In the Minnesota town of Wayzata, an entire family has been killed-husband, wife, two kids, dogs. On the wall, in blood: "Were coming." No apostrophe. There's something about the scene that tugs at Lucas's cop instincts-it looks an awful lot like the kind of scorched-earth retribution he's seen from Mexican drug gangs. But this is a seriously upscale town, the husband...

On Valentine's Day, four members of the Coverdale family--George, Jacqueline, Melinda and Giles--were murdered in the space of 15 minutes. Their housekeeper, Eunice Parchman, shot them, one by one, in the blue light of a televised performance of Don Giovanni. When Detective Chief Superintendent William Vetch arrests Miss Parchman two weeks later, he discovers a second tragedy: the key to the Valentine's Day massacre hidden within a private humiliation...