<blockquote> <center> <p> Former U.S. Senator Quintrell is dead.<br> His son, New Mexico's governor, is preparing his<br> run for the highest political office in the land. </p> <p> And dark family secrets are about to explode with the<br> devastating force of a Southwestern earthquake. </p> </center> </blockquote> <p>An eccentric Quintrell aunt has invited genealogist Carolina "Carly" May to their Taos compound to compile a record of the illustrious family. But digging into the past is raising troubling questions about a would-be president's private life . . . and the grisly street crime that left his drug-addicted sister dead. As a dark world of twisted passions and depravity slowly opens up before Carly, there is no one whom she dares trust -- perhaps least of all Dan Duran, a dangerous, haunted enigma who's tied to the Quintrells' history. But she will need an ally to survive the terrible mysteries a father carried to the grave -- because following the bloodlines of the powerful can be a bloody business. And some dead secrets can kill.</p>