Cruel Summer As a heat wave stifles Kansas City, a death-row inmate is served his final meal, makes his final confession, and uses his final breath to proclaim his innocence. For fifteen years, Ryan Kowalczyk denied having slaughtered a young couple in their car as their three-year old lay sleeping in the back seat. But when his friend Whitney King, who also stood accused, turned against him, his fate was sealed... Attorney Lou Mason understands the pain of being orphaned, so when the victims' now-teenage son asks for his help in suing blueblood King—who got off scot-free—Lou can't turn him down. Coincidentally, Kowalczyk's mother wants to hire him for the same purpose. And things get even more interesting once Lou discovers that four of the jurors on the original case died violently...while the rest have disappeared. Now, with each sweltering day that passes, it becomes clearer that someone will do whatever it takes—from making death threats to carrying them out—to stop Mason in his tracks. The deeper he probes, the greater the danger—until the past and present collide in an explosion of deceit, corruption, and murder...