A bizarre and ritualistic murder on Martha's Vineyard, the first since the English slaughtered the Indians, sends the remote and idyllic island into a panic during the crush of summer tourist season. Ray Cillo, ex-Boston PD demoted to rent-a-cop and living with his widowed mother in Tisbury, sees a heroic opportunity to swoop in, rescue the floundering local police, and wrap up the case before Labor Day.
But things go sideways. The publicity gets too big, the crime is too sensational. The governor sends his personal bulldog to take over and Ray is quickly sidelined. So, clever Ray latches on to the local police chief and nudges him along, or rather, drags him like a dead body, while leaning on his know-it-all, gossipy mother's grapevine.
One murder turns into two, then three, and the motives roll in thick as New England fog: an Indian casino the locals don't want, a governor with a dark secret, a no-questions-asked doctor and his rich patients, and the salty islanders who will do anything to keep the Vineyard frozen in time. Death and deception are waiting behind the dunes in this fast-paced, atmospheric mystery.