SOULLESS Sometimes the Darkness Overcomes the Light Book Two in "The Revenge, Unhinged Series" Whit Callister, a disgraced, former high-profile sports agent, is found dead in his Santa Monica pool - ankles zip tied, hands cuffed behind his back, and gagged. Across town, Dr. April Gilpin, his ex-wife, is informed by the police that her twelve-year-old daughter and ten-year-old son disappeared from school during lunch and never returned. She receives a "ransom note" - insults and threats, but no real solutions - warning that the children had just seventy-two hours of air before they die, and nine have already been used. The Santa Monica PD jump on the case, which is complicated by the fact that Callister previously testified, and Gilpin provided evidence, in a huge sports gambling scandal involving Georgian organized crime. Meanwhile, Mitch Hutton, April's first husband and the children's biological father, is visiting from London and inquiring about seeing the kids and "getting to know them better." The Santa Monica PD's Homicide team - Lieutenant Greg Nichols, Sergeant Mollie Granger, and Detective Nour El Masry - is on the case, but the Georgians, law-enforcement rivalries, and personal tragedies push them up against the impending deadline. Revenge colors every thought, action, and emotion of the investigation. SOULLESS. When the beginning is the end, and the end is the beginning.