Dead bodies aren't unusual in the alleyways of Fenest. Muggings, brawls gone bad, debts collected--Detective Cora Gorderheim has seen it all. Until she finds a Wayward man with his mouth sewn shut. As Detective Gorderheim pieces together the dead man's story, she's drawn into the most dangerous story in the Union of Realms: the election. Gorderheim just wants to find a killer but nothing's that simple in an election year. Dark forces conspire against the Union and Gorderheim finds herself at the rotten core of it all. She'll find the killer, but at what cost?