Stephanie Gallagher had a brilliant career as a journalist until a devastating betrayal upended her life. Now she's back in her hometown of Forsyth, Texas, working for the local paper and trying to get back on track.

But doing the cutting-edge investigative work that won her a Pulitzer will be difficult in sleepy Forsyth. Her most exciting story is an ongoing series of petty thefts with a peculiar twist: the thief always leaves some cash behind for the victims. Stephanie nicknames the thief the ‘Reluctant Robber,' speculating the perp is a Forsyth resident forced to crime by the economic downturn.

Then one night, the Reluctant Robber strikes again, but this time, the Robber leaves more than just cash to be found. Two bodies. Local policeman Mick McKay finds a hospice worker and a pizza delivery boy sprawled on the lawn, shot execution-style.

Did Stephanie's sympathetic reporting encourage the Robber? Mick thinks so. Guilty and disgusted with the sensationalist coverage, Stephanie decides to write in-depth profiles of the victims, by all appearances, strangers in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But as she starts to investigate, Stephanie discovers a hidden connection between the two victims: a recently deceased hospice patient, Harlan Tucker. Is Mick right that the killings were random? Or were the victims more closely connected than anyone suspected? And can Mick and Stephanie untangle the mystery before the Reluctant Robber strikes again?