"Killer Kern Strikes Again" read the headlines in the Bakersfield morning paper. Vermilion Blew, in sorrow and disbelief, reads of the late spring icy waters that have claimed three new victims. And exposed a decades old body in the riverbank. Could this be her long missing fianc, Frankie Monroe, who had left the day before the wedding, 38 years ago? Before Very can ask any questions, she is plunged into an investigation foisted on her by her PI partner. One of the victims is deemed a suicide, but the family refuses to believe this conclusion. Then, Very finds herself deep in neighborhoods she'd rather avoid, questioning the family of the other two victims. Is something askew with the story of the teenage girl and her older male cousin who tried to rescue her? Did they see the suicidal woman at Hart Park moments before she killed herself? Can Very extricate herself from these layers of lies and survive to tell the truth?
This is the second of the Kern Kapers Mysteries, featuring Vermilion Blew, a retired school librarian and English teacher. In the first mystery, Body in the Orchard, Very faces the possibility that instead of being abandoned at the altar, her fiance was murdered. In this second mystery, she again must grapple with the possibility that Frankie Monroe is no longer among the living. She has also been sucked into helping a local private investigator and now is asked to help with a new case.