Summary#1 New York Times—bestselling author Nora
Roberts takes us deep into the rugged Black Hills of South
Dakota, where the shadows keep secrets, hunters stalk the
land, and a childhood friendship matures into an adult
passion.
A summer at his grandparents' South Dakota ranch is not
eleven-year-old Cooper Sullivan's idea of a good time. But
things are a bit more bearable now that he's discovered the
neighbor girl, Lil Chance, and her homemade batting cage.
Even horseback riding isn't as awful as Coop thought it
would be. Each year, with Coop's annual summer visit, their
friendship deepens from innocent games to stolen kisses, but
there is one shared experience that will forever haunt them:
the terrifying discovery of a hiker's body.
As the seasons change and the years roll, Lil stays
steadfast to her dreams of becoming a wildlife biologist and
protecting her family land, while Coop struggles with his
father's demand that he attend law school and join the
family firm. Twelve years after they last walked together
hand in hand, fate has brought them back to the Black Hills
when the people and things they hold most dear need them most.
An investigator in New York, Coop recently left his
fastpaced life to care for his aging grandparents and the
ranch he has come to call home. Though the memory of his
touch still haunts her, Lil has let nothing stop her dream
of opening the Chance Wildlife Refuge, but something...or
someone...has been keeping a close watch. When small pranks
and acts of destruction escalate into the heartless killing
of Lil's beloved cougar, recollections of an unsolved murder
in these very hills have Coop springing to action to keep
Lil safe.
Lil and Coop both know the natural dangers that lurk in the
wild landscape of the Black Hills. But now they must work
together to unearth a killer of twisted and unnatural
instincts who has singled them out as prey.
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