Mercy Watts is barely back in St. Louis before her hometown suffers the worst crime in a century, a mass murder at an Italian restaurant. This has nothing to do with Mercy and she’s determined to keep it that way. No news. No gossip. No evidence. No bodies. Mercy doesn’t want to know. But there are some things she can’t avoid, her family and her friends.

Officer Joey Ameche has a marker, and he’s calling it in, much to Mercy’s dismay. His sister needs help and Mercy’s expected to pay Joey back by clearing her from any involvement in the Tulio murders. That mass murder leads Mercy to her smallest criminal yet, a tiny bacteria with huge potential for murder. She traces that nasty bugger to New Orleans, her mother’s hometown, where the crimes keep adding up and the lies are thicker than Nana’s gumbo.