A Kim Jansen Detective Novel - 1 When veterinary college sweethearts Jim Briggs and Helen Williams broke up to pursue careers in other parts of the country, they had no idea a tragedy would reunite them around a common cause six years later in Portland, Oregon where Briggs operated a mobile canine care service. Shortly after Williams loses her husband in a freak accident and is then attacked and left for dead by a group of homeless predators, she shows up on Briggs’ doorstep to take a job managing his pet crematory. Helen’s arrival coincides with Briggs’ own shock over witnessing a homeless woman flipping out in a drug overdose meltdown, begging, “God please take me.” While Briggs struggles with an inner dark voice urging him to put down the homeless meth addict like a stray dog, Williams goes on a murderous rampage for revenge while sleeping with a detective assigned to the case.

The theft of priceless books from a public library and the bloody attack on a security guard trying to protect them set Detective Kim Jansen on a twisting road of contradictory evidence and multiple suspects. At the center of the mystery is a 100-year-old family secret tied to photographer Edward S. Curtis' 20- volume masterpiece, The North American Indian.