Meet Frank, Lieutenant L.A. Franco, described by one of her detectives as "Dirty Harry's personality stuffed into Martina Navratilova's body." Frank commands Homicide Squad # 93 in the gang-ravaged heart of south-central Los Angeles. A workaholic, she allows nothing into her bruised private life but booze and exercise, football and music--her own drugs of choice. And they are about to fail her.

First one, then another brutally murdered girl turns up within Frank's jurisdiction. The ante is raised and the pressures of running one of the country's busiest homicide units increased when Frank and her squad find themselves dealing with a serial rapist turned murderer. As investigative leads go nowhere, a trap is laid for the unknown assailant.

The bait is Allison Kennedy, a playful young narcotics detective who seems to delight in irritating Frank. Sparks fly between them until the two women face a common enemy and are forced to forge an alliance in order to survive. Their hunt for the killer brings Frank painfully close to her own demons. She must choose between freeing herself from the bonds of her turbulent past or remaining fatally shackled.

Franco joins the hard-hitting ranks of V.I. Warshawski and Carlotta Carlisle in the gripping pages of Baxter Clare's first mystery, Bleeding Out.