From the Edgar Award-winning author of The Suspect and A Chill Rain in January comes another spellbinding novel of psychological suspense set on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia—a superbly crafted story of love, hate, and murder…

In the seaside village of Sechelt, Emma O’Brea prepares a dinner to celebrate six years of marriage: ­a union she has polished to gleaming perfection, along with her showcase home. The next morning her husband leaves for work, never to return.

At the same time, in nearby Vancouver, a simple-minded stock boy named Eddie Addison defends his tattered pride against the unwitting slights of a college girl, unleashing his rage in an act that will have far-reaching consequences.

RCMP Staff Sergeant Karl Alberg is facing his own losses. As he copes with the recent death of his father, his concerns about his elderly mother, and his own inexorable slide into middle age, he must make a decision about where his relationship with Cassandra Mitchell, his lover of eight years,­ is headed. Restless and in desperate need of distraction, Alberg uses his bereavement leave to probe the disappearance of Charlie O’Brea.

As Alberg deals with Charlie O’Brea’s vanishing act, Eddie Addison’s very messy life spills over into Sechelt. It is Emma O’Brea who will bring both cases to a chilling conclusion as several lives converge in an explosive climax of shocking, unforgettable violence.