Adrienne Hargrove has always been aware that humans are fragile creatures walking an egg-shell thin line between innocence and deviance. Her own life is a chain of guilt from poor choices she’s made. But as a private investigator in the Deep South, she thought she had seen it all. That was before she was hired by Catriona Kirby, wife of Galen Kirby, a doctor in a small Louisiana town. Adrienne knew she was looking into the possibility the doctor was involved in a drug scam with the sheriff. She even knew there was a possibility the doctor was involved in the murder of an ex-girlfriend. What she never imagined was that Dr. Galen Kirby was a serial killer and deeply involved in a baby black market scheme. And in their wildest nightmares neither Adrienne nor Catriona could have imagined that he was producing his own babies to sell.

Private Investigator Adrienne Hargrove has seen every kind of human depravity, but online predators grooming teenaged girls so they can abuse them seems the most depraved of all. The fact that often the predators are people the young victims know only adds to the horror. The world of Internet chat rooms seems like a world of science fiction to Adrienne, until Detective Mike Morris asks her to assist him in the case of two missing girls, Abigail Montgomery and Matilda Morning. Abigail has been found dead in New Orleans, and Matilda is still missing. With warnings of Hurricane Katrina in every weather report, Adrienne and Mike head to New Orleans, where Voodoo Priestess Madam Helene Dupre sends a message that she believes she can help them find Matilda. As Adrienne and Mike do all they can to find the girl, they become aware of another kind of human depravity. Evacuated to the Superdome in New Orleans following the hurricane, they see firsthand the nightmare of poverty, racial discrimination, government failure, and human hopelessness at its very worst. Does Madam Dupre have the power to help, or is she a hoax? Will Mike and Adrienne find Matilda in time, or is it already too late? This case is one that will change them both forever.

Once enthroned as a major international filmmaker, Carol Reed has long since been banished to a musty corner of movie history. To dust off his work, however, is to discover a dazzling body of films, a canon as remarkable for its diversity as its quality. Building his case, film by film, Robert Moss argues persuasively for a reassessment of this gifted artist, claiming a place for him in the ranks of the world's greatest directors.

Includes photographs, summaries of each Dirk Pitt novel, an interview with Cussler, and Dirk Pitt trivia questions.