Semi-retired Minneapolis homicide detective Dan Neumann is happy to hear his best friend's voice until he hears Pete's words: ''I need your help, buddy. Grams is dead.'' Dan's shock turns to outrage when he learns surrogate grandmother was murdered. He assumes it was a random break-in until Pete's entire family is targeted. Finding out who and why is Dan's mission. The puzzle gets even more strange when the investigation reveals a pro hit man and a lethal U.S. Army gas stolen in the Balkans, which is an invitation to the FBI to take over. No matter. Jurisdiction means little to Dan -- this is personal. Following the evidence into a land of billion-dollar mineral rights contracts, Dan learns about the Bakken Oil Field and a twisted, ugly world of fraud and conspiracy inhabited by men whose greed respects no one. As nature's winter fury swirls around him, Dan faces the killer in territory he never expected to find himself -- ''about thirty miles from the middle of nowhere - Alamo, North Dakota.''