Halloween is right around the corner when Lady Elsmere throws an elaborate Civil War costume ball. Wearing a nineteenth-century gown, Josiah ventures into the party's corn maze to find her dog, Baby, and take him home, only to discover Baby standing over a fallen ragtag scarecrow.

But is it really a scarecrow? Josiah doesn't have time to find out because someone dressed as the Grim Reaper bolts out of the shadows, swinging a scythe, and heading straight for her.

Our heroine picks up her skirts and flees, yelling, "Death! Death in the corn maze!" In a land of race horses, antebellum mansions, and bourbon, the glamorous world of the Bluegrass hangs tight to its secrets. There is evil everywhere. It's not called the dark and bloody ground for nothing.