Lincoln Prairie Homicide Detective Marti MacAlister does not get along with her new boss. Lieutenant Gail Nicholson disapproves of what she calls Marti's sloppy work habits, and regards her success as a fluke rather than the result of hard work and skill. Marti thinks the woman just may be feeling overly competitive with her, as one of the only other women on the job, and a black woman at that, but Marti knows she must put up with her boss's ill will or else she could be out of job.

When a homeless woman turns up dead, Lt. Nicholson dismisses the case. After all, being a suburb of Chicago, Lincoln Prairie has its share of homeless citizens, and another dead one-especially in the winter-ranks pretty low on the lieutenant's radar screen. She's more worried about an assault on a city alderman. But unable to let the woman's death go, Marti takes it upon herself to figure out the truth, even if it costs Marti her job. Could this homicide be part of a larger pattern? Can Marti find the killer before another person turns up dead?

The twelfth book in Eleanor Taylor Bland's acclaimed series, A Cold and Silent Dying is a suspenseful, compelling, compassionate story.