When a bodybuilder drops dead, a sharp, seventy-something advice columnist with a wicked past teams up with the lead detective to solve a poisonous mystery—while keeping her own agenda under wraps.

In October 1989, Lorraine Highsmith witnesses something straight out of a Halloween headline when bodybuilder Victor Marlowe collapses at the Sheboygan Bay pharmacy, dead before he hits the floor.

It’s not really any of Lorraine’s concern—she never much cared for Victor—but the whole affair sure puts a cramp in her personal business.

Still on the radar of Detective Michaela “Mike” Zenoni, Lorraine can’t very well say no when the detective enlists her assistance on the case. She has a reputation to maintain: sardonic old reporter with an eye for a story. And Victor’s death is shaping up to be one heck of a tangled web.

Between the politics and power plays of health culture, small-town secrets begin to emerge. If Lorraine can’t stay a step ahead of the tenacious detective, her own secrets might be revealed.

And she’s got a few that may be more interesting than this little community’s prepared to investigate.