When five women are found brutally killed in Sierra Leone, journalist Connie Burns suspects that a British mercenary is acting out his sadistic fantasies, but her efforts to expose him are complicated by her traumatic experiences as a hostage in Baghdad.

"Once upon a time Orla was: a woman, a painter, a lover. Now she is a mother and a wife, and when her husband Nick suggests that their city apartment has grown too small for their lives, she agrees, in part because she does agree, and in part because she is too tired to think about what she really does want. She agrees again when Nick announces with pride that he has found an antiquated Georgian house on the Dorset cliffs--a good house for children,...