On a frozen January night, a young man loops one end of a long rope over the branch of a tree. The other end he ties around his neck. A snowmobiler will find him 36 hours later, his lifeless eyes staring out at the endless cold water of Lake Superior. It happens in a lonely corner of the Upper Peninsula, in a place they call Misery Bay, a good 250 miles west of Paradise. Alex McKnight does not know this young man, and he won't even hear about the suicide until two months later, when the door to the Glasgow Inn opens and the last person Alex would ever expect comes walking inside to ask for his help. What seems like a simple quest to find a few answers will turn into a nightmare of sudden violence and bloody revenge, and a race against time to catch a ruthless and methodical killer. Alex McKnight knows all about evil, of course, having faced down a madman who killed his partner and left a bullet next to his heart. Mobsters, drug dealers, hitmen-he's seen them all and they've taken away almost everything he's ever loved. But none of that could ever prepare him for the darkness he's about to enter. . .