Phoenix, Arizona in August. The sky’s the colour of bleached concrete and it’s 114 degrees in the shade… and it’s going to get even hotter for David Mapstone.
Jax Delgado, a New York professor in Phoenix to research his next book has been tortured, murdered, his head severed and sent to his girlfriend. It shouldn’t be an assignment for a cold-case investigator like Mapstone, but the girlfriend in question just happens to his sister-in-law, Robin.
Delgado’s murder has all the hallmarks of drug cartel execution, and Mapstone fears Robin could be the next target. But is she as innocent as she claims? Is she hiding something? And why would a professor be targeted by a drug cartel?
If there are answers, they lie deep in South Phoenix – the city’s gang-infested hinterland where the police fear to tread. Mapstone’s investigation will compel him to cross this line, to enter a world that plays by a different set of rules: South Phoenix Rules.