Some things are sealed for a reason. Forensic psychologist Annie Hunter hosts a holiday bash at her Outer Banks home. A dangerous man with a lot to lose is watching. When Annie looks for a letter once hidden in the house, she turns up links between missing couples and a serial killer's confession. She fears her father has covered up a crime. The killer's daughter seeks Annie's help, but an FBI agent warns her away. Undeterred, she visits the prison to meet the man. He hints at a "headmaster's" plan that fingers her father. Determined to prove this wrong, Annie walks into a trap. Only a precisely calculated plan by her team can help her escape.

With her Nut Cracker Investigations series, Katherine Ramsland injects her expertise in forensic psychology into her fiction. She consults for coroners, trains homicide investigators, and has appeared as an expert on more than 250 crime documentaries. She was an executive producer on Murder House Flip, A&E's Confession of a Serial Killer: BTK, and ID's The Serial Killer's Apprentice. The author of more than 2,000 articles and 74 books, including I Scream Man and How to Catch a Killer, she also has a Substack and pens a blog for Psychology Today.