"There's a saying in Barstow, California, a decaying city in the scorching Mojave desert...The Interstate here only goes in one direction: Away. But it's the only place where ex-LAPD detective Beth McDade, after a staggering fall from grace, could get another badge - and a shot at redemption. Over a century ago, and just a few miles further into the bleak landscape, a desperate stranger ended up in Calico, a struggling mining town, also hoping for a second chance. His fate, all those years ago, is linked to Beth's when she's assigned two very different cases: investigating an old skeleton dug up in a shallow, sandy grave, and identifying a vagrant run-over by a distracted motorhome driver during a lightning storm. Every disturbing clue she finds, every shocking discovery she makes, force Beth to confront not just her own troubled past, but also one that's not her own . . . until it all smashes together in a revelation that could change the world."--Author website.