Chapters 1 - 7 Summary

Dave Robicheaux is a long-time resident of New Iberia, Louisiana. He works for the New Iberia Parish Sheriff's Department. When Megan Flynn, a childhood acquaintance, returns to New Iberia, her presence inadvertently touches off a chain of events which leads Robicheaux on a quest to solve the old murder of Jack Flynn. In addition to dredging up the horror of Jack Flynn's murder, Robicheaux also uncovers other dark secrets, long buried, in the town where he grew up. Old tensions between blacks and whites, rich and poor, are unearthed and exposed to the light of day. Dave Robicheaux becomes a crusader in the battle to put the ghosts of the past to rest in New Iberia.

Chapter 1 opens with Dave Robicheaux's traumatic childhood memory. As a boy, Robicheaux saw the body of a man who had been crucified, nailed to a...