San Francisco Forensic Psychiatrist Jo Beckett doesn’t dissect the body or the crime scene – she dissects a life and a mind, recreating the victim as a person, piecing together the story of their death to get to the truth. And then she goes after the killer.

Autumn Reiniger wants something special for her twenty-first birthday. Daddy’s bought her the car and the apartment, but now she wants excitement. And what Autumn desires, she gets.

Her father signs-up her and five friends for an ultimate urban reality game. ‘Edge Adventures’ alert the SF police that a ‘crime situation’ is underway, so the authorities will ignore any squealing tyres or desperate cries for help.

Then – when working on a case nearby – Jo Beckett encounters a group of men carting six sullen college kids to the woods for a wilderness adventure. Suspicious, she takes a closer look. And winds up with an invite to a birthday party she may never leave …