The small town of Roberta on the Lake, Michigan is shaken to its core when a group of former high school baseball players are murdered one by one. One of the team members, Oscar, who has since moved back to his birth country of Australia, returns to his blended family with his sister Clementine to mourn the loss of his best friend, Jack—the first murder victim, beaten to death in his private study with his own baseball bat, Definitely a crime of passion—and definitely someone Jack considered a friend, as only friends were invited inside his study. 

But who would want Jack dead? His efforts to develop and resuscitate the failing town of Roberta were generally appreciated by his fellow citizens, and he had no enemies to speak of. And what will his loss mean for the town's future? As other team members begin dying, Oscar and Clem channel their grief and fear into assisting their half-brother Ben, the sheriff, with the investigation before the killer gets around to striking Oscar out—permanently.