Set in a tumultuous period that helped to forge a nation, a riveting
mystery that takes a volunteer constable through the wilds of colonial
North Carolina to track down a shadowy killer.
When a traveling peddler discovers the murder of a farm family in
colonial North Carolina whose bodies have been left in bizarre
positions, circumstances point to an Indian attack. But Harry Woodyard,
a young planter who is the volunteer constable of Craven County during a
period in America's past when there was no professional police force,
finds clues that seem to indicate otherwise. The county establishment
wants to blame the crime on a former inhabitant, an elderly Indian who
has suddenly reappeared in the vicinity like an old ghost. But he is a
person to whom Harry owes much.
Defying the authorities, Harry goes off on his own to find the real
killer. His investigation takes him up the Atlantic seacoast and turns
into a perilous hunt for even bigger quarry that could affect the future
of Britain in the American continent.
