Puller is still struggling to come to terms with the events of his last case. When he visits his father, a retired three-star fighting legend but is now suffering from dementia and is confined to the hospital, his plans to take a few weeks off for some R and R is interrupted. His father has received a letter from his Aunt Betsy Simon, where she confides that there is something sinister going on in her town, Paradise, located in idyllic Florida. And she insists that Puller comes to investigate.
Aunt Betsy died under questionable circumstances, and though it doesn’t reveal much, it’s enough for Puller to begin poking around. Before long, he runs afoul of, then makes alliances with, the local police.
What Puller finds in the course of his investigation convinces him that his aunt’s death is no accident and that the palm trees and sandy beaches of Paradise may hide a conspiracy so shocking that some people will go to unthinkable lengths to ensure the truth is never revealed.
Meanwhile, there is a side story about a guy called Mecho, a giant man with special skills from Bulgaria. He's briefly kidnapped and held on an abandoned oil rig with hundreds of other people. The people all wore different colour shirts to designate their relative worth for those in charge of this particular human trafficking operation.
The way the many different storylines that are running in parallel come together in the end to make for a wholesome and satisfying conclusion is amazing. But that is the skill of Baldacci. And the growth of Puller’s character here is interesting. With every passing experience, Puller takes a closer look at himself and the principles and rules he’s lived by throughout his life, beliefs that are now conflicting with his sense of morality. Baldacci beautifully handles this development without making it seem forced, while also laying the groundwork for what could potentially be a very intriguing story arc for Puller.