Based on a real killer, the story begins with a woman murdered, triggering a kind of spirit to delve into the history of the killer and the victim to mine an understanding of what Justice might look like in a web of socio-economic tragedies that cascade into the inevitable conclusion of the book.

It does not shy away from, or cut to black, etc. really difficult subject matter, including sexual assault on minors. While sometimes really graphic they don’t feel gratuitous either. The author makes a note at the end saying that her research and reporting on missing, endangered, and murdered kids in social welfare and the connections to indigenous women are a throughline for the book, along with the real killer. It’s really, really difficult to read, and that is the point, imo.