Conn Whitman’s long distance swims keep him centered and sane—until a terrifying underwater encounter in a woodland lake plunges him into the middle of a murder investigation.

Once a superstar investigative reporter, disgraced by misconduct, Conn returned to his Vermont hometown to put his life back together. Now, after ten years covering local news, he knows his community like nobody else. When he kicks a submerged object while swimming—something with the density and resilience of human flesh—he wonders if it’s connected to an unsolved murder in a nearby town.

Detective Marlene Selanski heads up the State Police investigation. She considers Conn a possible suspect, and when the case turns personal for him, she warns him against “vigilante research” that could interfere with her investigation. Defying Selanski, Conn and his fiancée Celine Gabrielli combine their talents—his decade of journalistic research, her PhD in psychology, and a wealth of knowledge about the traditional ways of Vermont’s old villages—to seek answers on their own. As layers of deception peel away, they realize too late the dangers of amateur sleuthing: murder disrupts lives in unexpected ways, sending out ripples and bring long-hidden secrets to the surface.

USA Today and Times of London bestselling author Daniel Hecht weaves evocative language with psychological complexity in a murder mystery that will have you holding your breath until the last page.