With Door County caught in the grip of a fierce winter storm, Sheriff
Dave Cubiak agrees to do a simple favor for a friend of his wife: he
stops by to check in on an affluent widow with a questionable new
suitor. His initial disquiet is easily dismissed--until she is found
dead the next morning in her home. Lying at the bottom of a flight of
stairs, clutching a valuable bronze sculpture, she points her
outstretched hand in the direction of a nearby, nondescript ring.
The scene bears all the characteristics of an accidental fall, not
unheard of for a person of her age, but something is not adding up.
Later that week, an explosion in an ice fishing shack on the frozen bay
leads to the discovery of another body, burned beyond recognition. Was
this the widow's missing handyman? Could the two deaths be related? With
what has become a hallmark for books in the series, past and present
collide as Cubiak's search for answers uncovers the sad legacy of
loneliness and the disquieting links between wealth and poverty on the
peninsula.