Saturday night dates at the skating rink have been a tradition in the small southern town of Heartsdale for as long as anyone can remember, but when a teenage quarrel explodes into a deadly shoot-out, Sara Linton-the town's pediatrician and medical examiner-finds herself entangled in a terrible tragedy. What seemed at first to be a horrific but individual catastrophe proves to have wider implications. The autopsy reveals evidence of long-term abuse,...

Two armed men enter the police station in tiny Heartsdale, Georgia, and open fire. When the shooting stops, an officer is dead, Police Chief Jeffrey Tolliver is seriously wounded, and the survivors-including a class of grade-school children and medical examiner Sara Linton-are held hostage. In a tense standoff that could erupt at any moment into more bloodletting-with her ex-husband on the threshold of death-Sara must search for answers and an escape...