In his 15th appearance in the multi-award winning Thomas Black mystery series, Thomas is ambushed by unknown assailants on a Washington State ferry, pitched overboard and left for dead in Puget Sound. Thomas suspects the attack may be linked to the police brutality suit he's investigating for his attorney wife, Kathy. After he is rescued from the sound, things heat up when Thomas stumbles upon a mummy as a consequence of tailing a local businessman with ties to the mayor's office. At first the mummy seems unrelated to his work or the attack on him, but the corpse is gradually linked to several players in the case, including, oddly enough, Kathy's client. As Thomas continues to investigate, he begins to unravel a conspiracy of murder and racial animus dating back almost two decades.