Gonna Take a Homicidal Journey

Despite Kip's requests that she leave the case alone and focus on their relationship, Lauren can't say no when the victim's cousin asks her to find out the truth. Small towns always have their secrets, but this case is downright bizarre. Every directions she turns, Lauren finds something suspicious: cops who don't see the most obvious criminal patterns, local politicians with secret agendas, public battles that barely mask long-standing personal vendettas. Soon Lauren finds herself in the middle of local battle between blue-blood homeowners an developers eager to spoil their pristine community with fast-food chains. Could the victim have paid for his anti-development activism with his life? Or is that simply what the killer wants people to think? The more Lauren learns about the apparently sleepy town, the more puzzling the case becomes.

With her relationship stretched to the breaking point, a new partnership just beginning (professional, of course), and a case that just won't come together, Lauren is feeling off-kilter and offher turf. When the killer strikes again, she is forced to throw out the rule book and navigate by instinct, hoping she won't end up in the murderer's sights herself.

Full of twists, powerful emotion, and the inherent humor of New Yorkers outside their familiar territory, this is Sandra Scoppettone at her very best.