At Pines & Quill, a prestigious writing retreat in the Pacific Northwest, four resident authors - a best-selling crime thriller novelist desperate to steal a plot, a former nun hiding in silence, a comedian who's lost her laugh, and a fiery human rights activist - converge. Each one is harboring secrets - and when their worlds collide, blood spills. PI Sean McPherson joins forces with homicide detective Joe Bingham to investigate a missing wife and a husband who waited two weeks to report her disappearance. Soon, a woman's torso surfaces in a nearby wetlands preserve, and her limbs are discovered afterward in a place meant for creativity and escape: the guest quarters at Pines & Quill. Meanwhile, FBI Special Agent Rafferty is on assignment at Quantico and has left his wife, Ivy, at the writing retreat. Hoping to uncover the parents who abandoned her as an infant on a convent's doorstep, she submits her DNA to a genealogy site. What she learns is a chilling revelation - one far more dangerous than she ever imagined possible.
