It was Connelly's 21st book (20th novel) and the second featuring as the main character Jack McEvoy, a reporter now living in Los Angeles, and FBI agent Rachel Walling.

After being laid off by the Los Angeles Times, Jack McEvoy is given two weeks to train his replacement, Angela Cook, and decides that he wants to write one more major story before his exit.

He focuses on the case of 16-year-old drug dealer Alonzo Winslow, who is being held by police for the brutal rape and murder of a stripper in Santa Monica.

However, her research took her to a "trap" site set up by the real killer: Wesley Carver, an MIT graduate who is the chief security officer for a server farm in Mesa, Arizona.

During the lengthy drive on the "loneliest road in America", Jack calls his former girlfriend, FBI agent Rachel Walling, to report the "under the radar" serial killer, while also mentioning his electronic problems.

He unexpectedly finds Rachel in his room, having taken an FBI plane to the prison after she realized that Jack's discoveries and his electronic problems were linked but had no way to warn him.

During the flight, Rachel notes that the victims were both exotic dancers with similar body types and that both had been put in leg braces while being sexually abused before death, a perversion known as abasiophilia.

However, Jack then sees a picture from The Wizard of Oz in his editor's office and realizes that the method used to suffocate the victims is similar to the head of a scarecrow.

In a brief epilogue, Jack's research has revealed that Carver's mother was an exotic dancer similar in appearance to the victims who needed to wear leg braces when not performing.