内容简介 ：
近三十年来，奥古斯塔县接连发生连环xq案，并且作案者似乎是同一人。警察局一直没法侦破。联邦首席副检察官艾米·凯多年来一直在暗中调查此案件。去年惯犯又重施故技，受害女性叫做梅兰妮。过后梅兰妮产下一子，亚历克斯。亚历克斯的生父便是xq案罪犯。
亚历克斯四个月大的时候，某天，社会福利机构的人从托管中心带走了他。因为有人举报梅兰妮打算在黑市上卖孩子，而且警察从她家里搜出大量毒品。而梅兰妮对此一无所知。她深爱自己的孩子，试图到社会福利机构要回亚历克斯，但是却反因袭警罪入狱。
此时亚历克斯已经来到了社会福利机构为他挑选的上等收养家庭。这家人环境优渥，只是苦于没有生育能力，费尽心思只想收养一个孩子。
这个案件到了联邦检察官艾伦-丹斯比这里。他徒有虚职，事情都让副手艾米处理。艾米察觉出两个案子的关联，便细加研究，却走入更深的迷雾之中……
作者简介：
布拉德·帕克斯——迄今为止唯一荣膺尼洛奖、夏姆斯奖和左岸奖三大悬疑推理大奖的作家。
精彩书评：
壹：短评
# 虽然证据细节并不新颖，但是作者特有的描写视角和写作手法把这个故事讲得惊心动魄，险象环生。TZ不是问题，仅仅是描写手法让体制显得冷酷无情，同时又让体制在结局显现出一丝温情，只是文学手法而已。问题的核心还是在于陷害一个人是否真的这么容易，这才是整个故事的惊险性的来源，转眼间失去一切的共情感让人颤栗。
# 好喜欢这本书的女性啊！坚强、独立、富有爱心还执着。其实相对于女主（“我”是女主吧？）个人更喜欢那个女检察官！总之不剧透了，强烈推荐！
贰：
Chapter Three
...I knew too much about the child welfare system, having experienced its shortcomings firsthand. I had seen how its best intentions could be twisted by the intransigence and senselessness of what was basically a broken bureaucracy. I had met too many shifty adults who took advantage of the lack of oversight, whether it was the chronically lazy caseworker doing as little work as possible to keep her job, or the foster family who saw only dollar signs when it took in a new child.
And yes, they were the minority. But even the good people were being thrust into this thing that was too big, too clumsy, and too overstressed by having to deal with society’s collective dysfunction. It was almost inevitable something that unwieldy would create as many problems as it solved. People who were enmeshed in that world called it, simply, “the system.” And it was really the perfect term for something so cold, complex, and ultimately impersonal. Once you were in it, you lost some part of your humanity. Your family became a file to be passed around from one harried, underpaid, overworked civil servant to another.
小时候的遭遇，让我对儿童福利制度有着比旁人更深层次的了解。这套制度的种种弊端我都亲身经历过：我曾亲眼看到过道德败坏的gl主义，是如何用毫不妥协、冷漠无情的态度来扭曲这套体制的美好初衷的；我也曾亲眼见证了许多图谋不轨之人，利用这套体制的监管不周来牟取本不属于自己的利益——其中，有尽量减少自己工作量的懒惰社工，也有只是出于从中获得金钱报酬的目的而收养儿童的家庭。
或许你会说，坏人只是少数。可是有时候好人也被不由分说地卷入麻烦中，碰到繁杂而庞大的问题，不得不处理这种“社会集体的弊端”。甚至解决了这些问题，又会有另外一些问题接踵而来。 深陷其中的人无奈地称之为“体制”。或许用这个词形容它的冷酷、复杂、缺乏人情味儿再适合不过了。你一旦陷入其中，人格就不再完整。你的家庭也不过是一份档案，它存在的价值就是从一个满口怨言、收入微薄、工作超时的公务员手中传到另一个同样处境的公务员手中罢了。 我已尽我所能地从支离破碎的童年中走出来，去努力地工作，以防再度陷入这种麻烦。
...Once you were in the system, there was no easy way out. Its collective machinery acted like a giant steel maw, trapping you between its sharpened incisors, tearing another chunk out of you every time you jerked or squirmed.
一旦被卷入tz中，你就再也难以脱身了。整个tz宛如一张血盆大口，锋利的獠牙将你团团困住，每次你试图逃脱都会把你铰得粉碎。
Chapter Five
...Why my mother—who had once been smart, and pretty, and surely had better options—stayed with a man like that is testimony to how abuse can alter a person’s psyche. She not only stayed, she doubled down on the relationship, giving birth to me.
可令我百思不得其解的是，我的母亲——一位集美貌与智慧于一身、明明可以有更好归宿的女性——却偏偏选择继续待在这样一个男人身边。或许，这足以证明家暴是可以慢慢摧残一个人的精神状态的。她不仅和他一起生活，还进一步深化了这段关系——她生下了我。
Chapter Forty
OneThe human brain is hardwired with a fervent desire to make sense of the world, to create connections between events whether they exist or not.
人类的大脑十分热衷于理解这个世界，不断尝试着为不同的事件建立联系，不管这些联系存在与否。
Chapter Forty-Eight
In a strange way, I envied them. At least they eventually found that lowest point. Not so in ad seg.
It was like hitting a new bottom every day.
奇怪的是，我居然很羡慕他们：至少他们知道自己的人生最低谷在哪里。但是在监禁区，一切就另当别论了。在这里，你会感到人生的最低谷每天都在刷新纪录。
*法庭抗辩的部分太精彩了，胜过最后大结局。tz之恶是土壤，哺育疯长的个体之恶。
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