April is the cruelest month in hot, humid Atlanta. Especially for investigative reporter Amanda Roberts. She finally agrees to say "I do" to ex-New York cop Joe Donelli, and he doesn't. Show up for the wedding that is. But Joe has a real doozy of an excuse. A car bomb has smashed his old Chevy to smithereens and killed his best man. Joe himself, or his body, is missing. Amanda is too close to this news story to be objective, but there's not a snowball's chance in Georgia that she'll let the FBI keep her nose out of it. Now she's traveling country roads, asking questions and looking for answers. And it's a dangerous journey for sassy, tough Amanda right into the heart of the Old South ... the dark heart where violence, old hatreds, and desperate measures haven't died. They've simply gotten deadly.