It's Mardi Gras in Mechant Loup and a dog complaint pulls Clint Wolf away from the town's yearly parade. Happy to be away from the bustling crowds, noise, and lights, he responds to the complaint and arrives just in time to stop a man from shooting a friendly German shepherd that posed no threat to anyone. After addressing the man heatedly, he attempts to return the dog to its home, but instead finds a seemingly empty house, an abandoned detective car, a set of keys on the ground, and a single drop of blood in the driveway.It's unclear if anyone is home, as nearly all of the townspeople are attending the parade and no one will answer his persistent knocking, but Clint is determined to find the source of the blood. Finally, his attention is drawn to the neighboring property, where he locates an off-duty officer bound and gagged and barely clinging to life.As though things weren't bad enough, Clint soon stumbles upon a ghastly murder scene that will shock even him to his core, and it will inject sheer terror into the hearts of the rest of the town's citizens. The one person who might hold the key to the case is in a coma, leaving Clint to delve deep into the lives of the victims in hopes of finding the killer--or killers.Clint's biggest fear is not solving the case--it's wondering what he might do once he comes face to face with the killer.