Bellows Falls

The call was routine enough - someone went ballistic at a substance abuse meeting, wrecking the furniture and causing chaos. Hiding among the onlookers was Jasper Morgan, a low-level hoodlum Lieutenant Joe Gunther has been wanting to talk with. Before he can do so, the boy runs for it, breaking a cop's nose and stealing his gun. Weeks later, Gunther is called upriver to help out the police chief of hard-luck Bellows Falls. A seemingly minor case of sexual harassment, the case involves a cop who supposedly propositioned the long-suffering wife of charismatic local drug dealer Norm Bouch. But appearances are deceiving. The more Gunther digs, the less innocent the young cop begins to look, and the more it appears Norm Bouch is pulling the strings on a classic - and rapidly criminal - frame-up. Struggling to separate fact from illusion, Gunther discovers Bouch's connection to the missing Jasper Morgan and stirs up a hornet's nest of wife abuse, sexual debauchery, teen crime, corruption...and cold-blooded murder.