During the holiday season, Lola Dakota, a respected professor from one of New York's most elite colleges is strangled and dumped in an elevator shaft. A piece of paper in her pocket reads "The Deadhouse." Assistant DA Alexandra Cooper uncovers a distressing pattern of betrayal and terror while dealing with the case.

New York City politics have always been filled with intrigue and shady deals. Assistant DA Alex Cooper and her NYPD colleagues find themselves investigating a shipwreck involving human cargo -- illegally trafficked immigrants -- at the same time a sex scandal threatens the career of a promising young congressman. When Alex discovers that a young woman who died in the wreck and the congressman's murdered lover have the same tattoo -- the brand of the...

Forty-eight hours after Alexandra Cooper arrives in France to visit her boyfriend and famed restaurateur, Luc Rouget, her vacation in paradise is cut short when a young woman from the village is found murdered. The only evidence discovered on the body is one of Luc's matchboxes promoting his new restaurant in New York. But before the investigation begins, Alex is summoned back to New York to handle a high profile case. Mohammed Gil-Darsin, the distinguished...