"On the surface, Cross County, Ohio seems like the ideal rural community. A town of small, family-owned businesses surrounded by woods and farmland. A proud history going back to colonial times. Picture-perfect Americana." "But twenty years ago, a series of brutal slayings shook Cross County. The horror ended when Carl Coulter was tried, convicted, and executed for the killings. Since then, Cross County has been at peace, a simple rural community like so many in the quiet corners of the Midwest. But now the murders have started again. Is this a copycat killer, or has Carl "the Cutter" somehow managed to reach beyond the grave?" Joanne Talon, a survivor of her own childhood trauma and the first woman to serve as Cross County's sheriff, must catch the killer before the carnage-spreads. Her long-time friend, local reporter Dale Ramsey, and Marshall Cross, reigning patriarch of Cross County's "first family" have their own reasons for helping Joanne. And neither are telling all they know.
