Discover a different kind of small-town detective in the debut novel of the Sean Colbeth Investigates series.
How well do you know the people close to you - really, truly, know them?
That's the question Police Chief Sean Colbeth finds himself asking when a local university professor living in the small seaside village of Windeport, Maine is found dead in the bed of his late-model powder blue pickup truck, surrounded by five-gallon jugs of water. While it's clear he's been shot, there's no bullet, no gun, and no clear reason why the geriatric head of the Extension Service would be on anyone's hit list.
Assuming he knows his village better than anyone, the former Olympic swimmer ignores his gut instinct to let the State take over the investigation but quickly finds himself asking hard questions of those he thought he knew best. Relentlessly scraping away at the whitewashed exteriors of the village he's lived in his entire life, Sean uncovers a carefully orchestrated campaign to hide the very secret the dead professor had been attempting to expose; surrounded by lies and those willing to abet them, friends - and family - become complete strangers just when Sean needs them the most.