The Deep Dark Descending

The narrative alternates between two timelines. In the present, Minneapolis homicide detective Max Rupert stands on a frozen lake near the Canadian border, poised to kill a bound man with an ax handle. In chapters set three days earlier, Max traces the conspiracy behind his wife's murder. The two timelines converge as the story reveals how Max arrived at the lake and who the man is.

The novel opens with Max raising the ax handle for a third blow, but his arm freezes. He cannot kill the man yet: He needs a confession, needs the man to understand why he is dying, and needs the man to hear the name of Max's wife, Jenni, as his last thought. Max recalls Nancy Rosin, the woman who raised him and his brother Alexander after their mother died, and her warning that a person seeking revenge should dig two graves.

Three days earlier, on New Year's Eve, Max listens to a CD recording of two men planning Jenni's murder. Boady Sanden, a defense attorney and former friend, found the recording in the case file of Ray Kroll, a client of dead attorney Ben Pruitt. On the recording, a voice Max dubs the Planner tells the other man, the Henchman, that the target is "a cop's wife" who "stumbled onto something she shouldn't have" (16). A third figure, the Boss, is referenced but not heard. Max had always believed Jenni died because of his enemies as a detective, but the recording reveals she was killed for something she knew from her work as a social worker at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC). He sets up a war room in the upstairs guest room, once intended as a nursery, noting that all his evidence is stolen and inadmissible. A dark thought takes hold: There will be no trial if the killers are dead.

Back on the frozen lake, Max ties the unconscious man, treks to the man's cabin, and finds rope and an old ice auger in the shed. His plan is to drill holes in the ice in an oval large enough to fit a body through and sink the man into the lake.

Two days before the lake confrontation, Max and his partner Niki Vang catch a new homicide. A woman's burned body has been found in a minivan, and the suspect, Dennis Orton, deputy chief of staff to Minneapolis's mayor, is hospitalized after catching fire while destroying evidence. Surveillance footage confirms Orton strangled his girlfriend, Pippa Stafford. During his interview, Orton fabricates a story about a gang carjacking but slips by mentioning strangulation, a detail he should not have known.

While working the Orton case, Max secretly investigates Jenni's murder. At HCMC, Jenni's former colleague Karen locates Jenni's electronic day planner, which lists an appointment on the day she died with Farrah McKinney, a freelance interpreter of Russian and Baltic languages. Farrah explains she was called to interpret for a young Belarusian girl named Zoya, roughly 16 or 17, who had been beaten and thrown through a second-story motel window and appeared to have been trafficked. When an unnamed investigator entered Zoya's room, the girl went silent with fear. Jenni later left Farrah a voice mail saying Zoya was talking again, but when Farrah arrived, Jenni had been struck by a car in the parking garage. Zoya vanished from the hospital. Farrah describes a ruble-symbol tattoo behind Zoya's ear, which Max recognizes from a Jane Doe case four years earlier.

Max confides in Niki about the CD and the conspiracy. They confirm the Jane Doe's ruble tattoo matches Zoya's, and Niki recalls seeing the same mark during her years in the Vice Unit, a division focused on prostitution and sex crimes, suggesting it is a pimp's brand. They find the incident report for Zoya but discover the photo file has been emptied and no supplemental report was filed by the investigator. Max also tells Niki that Jenni was pregnant when she was killed, a fact he learned only from the autopsy and one Jenni herself may not have known.

Lieutenant Briggs, second-in-command of the Homicide Unit, hovers around their investigation. Commander Walker, head of Homicide, tells Max privately he has colon cancer and will take leave, with Briggs likely becoming interim commander. Walker warns that Briggs's rise was facilitated by Orton. Max uses Orton against Briggs: In a second interview, Orton reveals that Briggs, his college fraternity brother, benefited from a mutual arrangement of political favors and helped cover up a drunk-driving accident Briggs caused. Armed with this confession and footage of Briggs visiting Orton's hospital room to silence him, Max forces Briggs to resign.

The case breaks open when Niki obtains a court recording of Kroll's voice from a first appearance hearing. The voice matches the Henchman. Niki then identifies the Planner as Commander Reece Whitton, head of the Vice Unit. Max realizes Whitton was the investigator at the hospital the day Jenni died: Whitton took the call, recognized Zoya, deleted her photos from the police system, filed no report, and ordered the hit when Jenni called to say Zoya was talking again. Farrah's voice mail also reveals Zoya was terrified of a man named Mikhail.

Max drives to Whitton's house and finds Anastasia (Ana) Savvin, whom Niki identifies as Zoya's older sister through a Belarusian missing-persons database. Max shows Ana crime-scene photos of Zoya, and Ana collapses in grief; she did not know her sister was dead. Enraged, she drives to the Caviar Gentlemen's Club, a strip club owned by Mikhail Vetrov, who operates publicly as Michael Vetter. Max intercedes before she can shoot Vetrov. At Max's house, Ana reveals Mikhail runs a sex-trafficking ring disguised as a cleaning company and that Whitton was blackmailed into partnership after Ana secretly filmed him on Mikhail's orders. Ana was given to Whitton as part of the arrangement. She describes how Mikhail groomed her from age 17, bringing her from Belarus to a cabin near the Canadian border and coercing her into prostitution through isolation and cycles of affection and deprivation.

Max confronts Whitton on the top floor of a parking ramp with the CD recording. Whitton initially denies everything, then recognizes his own voice and admits involvement, saying he "had no choice." Rather than face arrest, Whitton climbs over the eight-story railing. Max could stop him but does not. Whitton jumps to his death. Max places Whitton's gun on the car seat to suggest a planned suicide and leaves as snow covers the evidence.

Ana tells Max that Mikhail will flee to his cabin near the Canadian border. Max pursues him, and after a confrontation at the cabin, the chase continues on foot across the frozen lake. Max catches Mikhail, strikes him with the ax handle, and the narrative circles back to its opening scene.

The "Up North" chapters detail the reckoning. Max drags Mikhail across the lake and begins hand-drilling holes through more than three feet of ice. Mikhail cycles through denial, bribery, and provocation. Max erupts, revealing that Mikhail killed his wife and unborn child. His body deteriorates from exhaustion and cold while Nancy Rosin's warning echoes in his mind. When the last hole is drilled, Max demands a confession. Mikhail admits he ordered the hit on Jenni and killed Zoya himself. Max feeds Mikhail into the hole, releases his grip, and watches him slip beneath the water. Alone on the ice, Max is at peace.