Jo Epstein can’t run from her mistakes. Then again, who can? Certainly not the Harlem photographer accused of manslaughter, the missing social worker with the heart of gold, or Jo’s ex-friend, the anarchist. But that doesn’t stop her from trying to cut all ties to the detective business that almost made her an accessory to murder in L.A. Unfortunately, she’s good at what she does and they always find her—the folks with loved ones who are most certainly guilty but in need of one last chance. Starting life over in New York City is pricey, and a desperate mother’s plea is too difficult to resist, especially with the money she offers. Suddenly, Jo is drowning in a tangle of money-laundering, kidnapping and murder, haunted by shadows from the past and guilt over debts unpaid. And then there’s Ellie, the girl who died in Jo’s bathtub. As Jo’s investigation brings her closer and closer to the truth, she learns that to save herself, she must do what no one else can…ask the dead.

Roped into helping her émigré stepfather, Nikolai, escape the clutches of a ruthless blackmailer, Jo Epstein must enter a world where criminals enforce a 19th century code of honor, threats arrive inside traditional Matryoshka (nesting) dolls, and fashion models adorn themselves with lewd prison tattoos. And even as she helps Nikolai—who claims to have been framed—to evade the police, Jo can’t help wondering if her musically gifted but socially inept stepfather is as innocent as he claims. From Vladimir Central Prison to the brooding Russian forest, Jo Epstein investigates the world of the vory—a criminal sub-culture as brutal as it is romanticized—while racing against the clock to solve crimes committed on two continents.