Set during Prohibition, against the backdrop of the Tulsa race riots, an Irish ex-cop and an Oklahoma Cherokee bring to light a web of murder, graft, and injustice.

This is the second installment of the story begun in The Osage Rose. Set in 1923, two years after the first novel, this sequel follows two detectives, the Irish ex-cop J.D. Daugherty, and the part-time detective/part time auto mechanic/fulltime Oklahoma Cherokee Hoolie Smith as they investigate the disappearance of a white geologist, Frank Shotz. The novel is set in the aftermath of the violent Tulsa race riots of June 1921 and moves between its primary setting -- the small town of Anadarko, Oklahoma and the adjacent Kiowa allotments -- and the secondary setting of Tulsa. It is 1923 and Prohibition is in full swing, thus the two private detectives’ investigation into what seems to be a simple missing persons case ultimately brings to light a web of murder, graft, and injustice tied to a network of bootlegging.