Four women hunt a honeymoon killer while one of them is dying.
Who drives the story
San Francisco PD homicide inspector carrying two death sentences: a rare blood disease and a killer she cannot catch. She opens the book with a gun to her head and spends the rest of it deciding to live anyway.
Medical examiner and the club's forensic brain. She reads the dead so the living can act, and she is the first to join Lindsay's fight.
Newly assigned Chronicle crime reporter who meets Lindsay at the Grand Hyatt scene. She trades the press's view of the case for a seat at the table.
Assistant District Attorney and the last recruit, completing the four-woman team. She knows which evidence can actually put a killer away.
Lindsay's new partner, assigned because the case is too high-profile to risk. He becomes her romantic subplot and her vulnerability.
Also in the story
The man who calls "Champagne" outside the Brandts' door and murders the newlyweds. His crimes stretch from San Francisco to Cleveland.
Lindsay's general practitioner, the man who names her disease, Negli's aplastic anemia, and starts the book's second clock.
How they are connected
She reads the dead so the living can act, and she is the first to join Lindsay's fight.
Newly assigned Chronicle crime reporter who meets Lindsay at the Grand Hyatt scene.
Lindsay's new partner, assigned because the case is too high-profile to risk.
Dr. Roy OrenthalerLindsay Boxer
Lindsay's general practitioner, the man who names her disease, Negli's aplastic anemia, and starts the book's second clock.
Go deeper
Women solving what men couldn't · The body as a second antagonist · Grief and the gun · The hunter you've already met
Themes explainedThe full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
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