This review has been a nightmare to write. Tawni O'Dell is one of my favorite authors, so it really pains me to say this book was a disappointment. 
 First, the good. O'Dell's books are all set in Pennsylvania mining country, where she is from, and they always feel very authentic. 
 I also must commend her on writing a believable sociopath. That's not easy to do, without making the character seem cliche or over the top. The detached way this character views the world and the way she rationalizes her murderous behavior makes her all the more chilling. 
 Everything else feels half-baked. 
 The story begins with Danny, a big shot criminal psychologist, returning to the small mining town he grew up in. This is a town marked by tragedy: a notorious 19th century public lynching, and, more recently, a fatal mining accident. It's not the town Danny ran away from, though, it's his family. His father was an abusive drunk who terrified him as a child, and his mentally unstable mother was convicted of killing his baby sister. 
 While back in town to see his grandfather, Danny helps the local police investigate a murder case. And wouldn't you know, it ends up all being tied to his sister's death. I'd mark that as a spoiler, but anyone who has any acquaintance at all with this genre will see that coming a mile away. 
 There's all sorts of other tangents; the town has been trading on the ghost story aspect to the lynching and the team from a ghost-hunting reality show has arrived... for what I'm not sure. This plotline never goes anywhere. 
 There's what feels like a hint of a romance for Danny, but... that plotline never goes anywhere either. I'm not even sure why O'Dell bothered; the book doesn't need it. And if the book is about Danny confronting his demons, or returning to his roots, or putting the past behind him, or whatever cliche you want for a poor, damaged hero, it doesn't really work because honestly, Danny is pretty boring. 
 So basically, the mystery is slight, there's a lot of filler, and you'd be better off reading any other book by Tawni O'Dell, because this is just not nearly what she's capable of.