In the dead of night, a farmer hears a suspicious noise. It’s everyone’s worst nightmare: a break-in. When he confronts the intruders, he has no idea that just minutes later he will be left lying in a pool of blood. But the chilling truth lies not in the act itself, but what the perpetrators were willing to kill for. At the scene of the crime, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace senses something amiss. This is no mere botched robbery; it’s the tip of the iceberg of a nationwide crime epidemic. Ruthless gangs, operating with military precision, have discovered a new black market flourishing in the shadows – an unthinkable source of wealth even more profitable than drugs. Grace’s investigation into this deadly trade pits him against some of the most ruthless people he has ever encountered; people who will kill anyone who gets in their way, because where there is greed, there is murder. The clock is ticking, and the stakes have never been higher. Out of his element, and out of time, can Roy Grace put a stop to these criminal masterminds before more innocent lives are lost?

"Wind: To match one's body with one's heart. Sand: To take the bearer where they wish. Song: In praise of the goddess Bird. Bone: To move unheard in the night. The Surun' do not speak of the master weaver, Benesret, who creates the cloth of bone for assassins in the Great Burri Desert. But Uiziya now seeks her aunt Benesret in order to learn the final weave, although the price for knowledge may be far too dear to pay. Among the Khana, women travel in caravans to trade, while men remain in the inner quarter as scholars. A nameless man struggles to embody Khana masculinity, after many years of performing the life of a woman, trader, wife, and grandmother. As the past catches up to the nameless man, he must choose between the life he dreamed of and Uiziya, and Uiziya must discover how to challenge a tyrant, and weave from deaths that matter."--Provided by publisher.