“Dunlap knows the West Coast, knows how to create memorable characters, knows how to build suspense, and her technical expertise is extraordinary.” —Chicago Tribune

“White knuckle plot and bare-knuckle action scenes.” —The New York Times Book Review

Darcy Lott's work as a stuntwoman is always less dangerous than her real life.

In her fifth case, the Zen-practicing heroine is yet again thrust against her will to investigate a series of mysterious events. Her intermittent stuntman boyfriend Damon Guthrie blows a dangerous stunt at her expense. When he asks to meet Darcy to explain what happened, Darcy agrees, even though she's blowing off an important family meeting in the process. Somehow she's been appointed the unofficial head of her family's search for her brother Mike, who's been missing since Darcy was 16. While Darcy knows it's her responsibility to lead the hunt, her last conversation with Guthrie gives her the feeling that what he has to say is more important. Unfortunately, he never shows up, and Darcy's forced into some unlikely alliances with his friends in the stunt world in order to suss out his whereabouts. She goes with her gut, never trusts anyone and ends up in precarious situations that seem more confusing then compelling. All the while, her family and the cops (with some overlap) are on her tail, her brothers and sister demanding that she attend to her duties, the cops insisting that she's the key to the mystery. Darcy once more uses teachings from her Zen guide Leo to inform both her search and her findings.

Loyal fans of Darcy's adventures (Civil Twilight,2009, etc.) will gobble this up as a satisfying potential end-cap; for newcomers, it's a miss.