Convicted murderer Melvin Mars is counting down the last hours before his execution--for the violent killing of his parents twenty years earlier--when he's granted an unexpected reprieve. Another man has confessed to the crime. Amos Decker, newly hired on an FBI special task force, takes an interest in Mars's case after discovering the striking similarities to his own life: Both men were talented football players with promising careers cut short by tragedy. Both men's families were brutally murdered. And in both cases, another suspect came forward, years after the killing, to confess to the crime. A suspect who may or may not have been telling the truth. The confession has the potential to make Melvin Mars--guilty or not--a free man. Who wants Mars out of prison? And why now? But when a member of Decker's team disappears, it becomes clear that something much larger--and more sinister--than just one convicted criminal's life hangs in the balance. Decker will need all of his extraordinary brainpower to stop an innocent man from being executed.


因謀殺而被定罪的梅爾文．馬斯距離處決只剩下最後幾小時──二十年前他因殘忍殺害父母而被判刑，但就在行刑前他意外地被判了緩刑，因為有另一個男人出來投案。新上任的 FBI 探員阿摩斯．德爾克發現馬斯和他自己的經歷極為相似，因此他開始對這個案子感興趣：他們曾經都是有天份的美式足球員，大好的前程卻因悲劇無疾而終，他們的家人都慘遭殺害，在他們兩人涉入的案件中，都有人在謀殺案多年以後出來自首，這個自首的嫌犯說的可能是實話，但不論馬斯有罪與否，這嫌犯的自白有可能會改變馬斯的命運。是誰要馬斯出獄？為什麼是在這個時間點？在德爾克的調查過程中，團隊裡的一個成員突然失蹤，很顯然，這案件並不單純，這不只攸關嫌犯一人的性命而已，德爾克需要過人的智慧，來拯救無辜的人免於處刑。