Back on the CBI’s Priority Investigations Team, Ava is settling into her new position when she gets a call from an old colleague with the Oceanside Police Department. A former confidential informant of hers was found murdered, his body stuffed into a blue oil drum. In Ava's home turf.

When she arrives at the scene, the strange symbols etched onto the body seem to connect to two other victims found months prior. As the tendrils of the case pull Ava further into the fray, she discovers a tangled web of psychological warfare, gruesome rituals, and murderous beliefs that put the beach city’s most vulnerable at risk.

With tourists flooding in for the Fourth of July holiday, the press creating panic, and the killer two steps ahead, Ava must fight the ghosts of her past to save the next victim.

But what if there’s more than one killer at work?