Prosecutor Elsie Arnold loves her small-town home in the Ozark hills,
but she's been waiting for a murder to come along and make her career.
So when a body is found under a bridge, throat cut, Elsie jumps at the
chance to work on the case, even if it's alongside the brash new chief
assistant, Chuck Harris--and her latest flame, Detective Bob Ashlock.
But when the investigation reveals that the deceased woman was driving a
school bus, and the police locate the vehicle, its interior covered in
blood, the occupant and only suspect is a fifteen-year-old boy. Elsie's
in for more than she bargained for.
Win or lose, this case will haunt her. No one has successfully
prosecuted a juvenile for first-degree murder in McCown County. If she
loses, it's her career on the line and a chilling homicide unresolved;
if she wins, a boy's liberty will be taken from him before he reaches
his sixteenth birthday.