1993, Springfield, Illinois is haunted once more. Bodies are piling up, each murder echoing the gruesome M.O. of a killer from the 1970s. Has a long-dead serial murderer returned—or is a chilling copycat resurrecting horrors best left buried?

JJ, now an FBI agent, returns home to close the final chapter of The Hanging Tree and see Rose’s trial through to its end. But when he teams up with a newly returned Springfield detective, a fresh string of murders pulls them deep into a labyrinth of secrets.

Shadowy government figures circle the investigation, and unsettling truths begin to surface—truths someone will do anything to keep hidden. As JJ turns to Rose for help, old psychological wounds reopen, loyalties blur, and every answer leads to a deeper, darker question.

In this fast-paced whodunit, the past isn’t just alive—it’s hunting.