This excellent book, another great one from Karin Slaughter, gives us a look inside a militia/antigovernment group/community. This also continues the Will Trent-and-Sara Linton story. But Slaughter writes this series well enough that you really don't need to read it from the beginning to understand what's going on. It's just more fun that way.

The last time I read a book in this series, Linton was a doctor at a hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. Now she is a medical examiner with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) along with Trent and his partner (and Linton's good friend), Faith, investigators with the GBI.

After a scientist with the Centers for Disease Control is kidnapped for unknown reasons by unknown assailants and after (a month later) two bombs go off in important areas of Atlanta and after Linton is then kidnapped, the FBI and GBI finally deduce that the kidnappers in both cases belong to a militia/antigovernment group that no one knows much about. But Trent goes undercover to infiltrate the group for both personal (to save Sara) and professional (to prevent a suspected plan to take hundreds more lives) reasons.

The group is up in the mountains somewhere. After she is kidnapped and brought there, ostensibly to provide medical care to their many children who have the measles, Sara sees a community of women, children, and mostly young men, really just boys playing soldiers. She also sees that the guy running the show is Dash. He preaches constantly antigovernment rhetoric and considers himself a Constitutional expert.

But then Trent arrives and plays along as one of Dash's followers. Can he prevent the coming massacre? Can he save Sara?

If you've been reading the Will Trent books or the Sara Linton books or the Trent-and-Linton books, and even if you haven't read any of the series, you're sure to enjoy this book. Even though it is a continuation, Slaughter always reminds/tells you background information about the characters.