David Baldacci has published more than forty action novels in various series. This is the sixth work with Amos Decker as the main character. In a lost corner of North Dakota, called London, in an area where oil extraction by fracking is a great source of wealth, a hunter discovers the body of a young woman, Irene Cramer, in an unpopulated area. FBI agent Decker and his collaborator Alex Jamison are sent to solve the murder.
Irene was working as a teacher in the village of a Baptist sect, which remains on the fringes of society and has high standards of conduct. They discover that Irene was leading a double life, but it is impossible to reconstruct her past. In London, the oil wealth gives rise to fights between wealthy families. There is also a military base with an early warning radar installation, which has fallen into disuse. A civilian company manages the complex, shrouded in military secrecy.
There are more deaths and suicides as Decker and Jamison engage in an increasingly tangled situation. Characters from the author's other stories appear, including special agents Will Roby and Jessica Reel, as well as Big Blue. The son of one of London's tycoons is homosexual; his father despises him and he commits suicide. There is a lesbian with a partner. The author takes a “politically correct” stance on homosexuality, without moral judgments. The language is clean, with no indecent settings or descriptions.