"In the town of Regent, a lurid murder becomes a magnet for the media, the best and worst of the local courtroom powers, and a rich cast of hangers-on. There is Teresa Kean, the advocacy lawyer whose life is changed by a mysterious secret; J.J. McClure, the prosecutor who contemplates his own secrets under the radar screen of Poppy, his glamorous, funny, right-wing congressman wife. There is Max Cline, a tough gay former state's attorney, once J.J.'s boss and now a marginalized defense counsel. There is the sociopathic seventeen-year-old Carlyle, half sister of the accused, a supermodel whose addiction is attention - no matter the cost. And - as if it were a character itself - there is the reckless passion that will fulfill a self-destructive destiny for one of the players."--BOOK JACKET.