A second-generation homicide cop, ex-Major League baseball player, beleagured but loving father, heart-worn womanizer and renowned investigator, Seamus Moynihan figures after sixteen years on the job he’s already witnessed the worst kind of violence humans can visit upon another.Then he’s summoned to a crime scene where the victim, a naked man, has been tied to a bed then assaulted with North America’s deadliest pit viper: an eastern diamondback rattlesnake. Aided by a team of crack detectives, Moynihan enters a deadly world of twisted eroticism, hot herpetology, fanatical spiritual cults and ultimately the oldest mystery in the Bible, a riddle that has frustrated religious scholars for centuries: Who was the second woman, the enigmatic wife of Cain?

San Diego Homicide Detective Seamus Moynihan thinks he’s seen it all when it comes to human violence, but a naked man killed in a snakebite ritual might be his most gruesome case yet… Moynihan’s search for the killer will propel him on a journey through the underground world of ancient eroticism, black-market reptiles, and religious cults, ultimately leading him to a Biblical scholar whose theories about the dawn of time provide a surprising link to the current investigation. But can Moynihan preserve his own sanity while delving into a secret as old as Cain? To solve this brutal case, Moynihan will have to reckon with one of the great mysteries of the ages: Who was The Second Woman? Pulls you guts-first right through to the back cover. I loved this book.”—#1 New York Times Bestselling Author Nelson DeMille “A dazzling and intelligent thriller.”—Internationally Bestselling Author Lynn Hightower