"It's Christmastime, and police officers Darrel Two Moons and Steve Katz are expecting the usual gang assaults, feuding spouses, and alcohol-related misdemeanors. Then the call comes in from the Historic District: the reported death of an art gallery owner whose bludgeoned body stretches across a bleached pine floor like a big, nasty still life." When he was in the NYPD, Katz saw more homicides weekly than he's seen in Santa Fe in three years. Two Moons, an Army brat and ex-Marine, is discovering his roots among local Indian potters. But everything personal goes by the wayside as they unearth the victim's enemies and follow a trail of motives that lies buried like layers of paint. As biting winds blow through town, Two Moons and Katz enter a dangerous world where murder has been perfected to an art form.