After over two years, school psychologist Skye Denison is still in Scumble River trying to figure out why she's still in Scumble River. But with all the town's quirks and crimes, life there is never dull . . . and besides, it's home.
Scumble River is celebrating its bicentennial in style-with Historical Society Reenactments, a bingo tent, Crazy Craft Race, and a coal-tossing tournament. Serving as the guest of honor is none other than the town founder's great-great-grandnephew, Gabriel Scumble. But his visit turns out to be short-lived when Skye's students, Frannie and Justin, find him dead, a pickax protruding from the chest area of his authentic buckskin costume.

Meanwhile, Skye's deceitful ex-fiancé Luc St. Amant has appeared out of the blue, creating turmoil in her love life. Does the real danger lie in the possibility that Luc will drive away the men in Skye's life . . . or is there a more menacing connection between Luc's arrival and Gabriel Scumble's murder?

"When writers as sharp as Margaret Maron, Earlene Fowler, and Jerrilyn Farmer all rave about a colleague as convincingly as they have about Denise Swanson, even the gruffest noir addict has to take notice."-Chicago Tribune