Aaron Stander

Sheriff Ray Elkins returns in this haunting crime thriller.On the 4th of July, what should have been a quiet night explodes into horror when two bodies are found brutally murdered in the dunes of a remote beach. A couple, naked and vulnerable, lies dead, sparking a complex investigation that dives deep into the darker corners of human nature.The victims' identities lead the investigation down a path filled with drugs, secrets, and a past that refuses to stay buried. Ray and his team come face to face with a culture of poverty, addiction, and fragmented family bonds that explodes both lives and beloved landscapes.

Everything is in place at the Gull Point Estate for the Memorial Day wedding bash-the lawns are perfectly manicured, the caterer is stocked and ready, the champagne is chilled. And the string quartet is brushing up on their Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, and Mozart. But before they end their rehearsal, they'd be well advised to have a version of Stormy Weather ready to go just in case the day doesn't go as planned.

In the depths of winter, Cedar County is on occasion literally frozen in place. Roads are impassable; the area schools are closed for days at a time. And the bad guys and gals, they're hunkered down like everyone else until the weather breaks. But this winter isn't the usual. There's arson and murder. The iniquities of some particularly unsavory ancestors are being visited upon the current generation.

It's February along the shores of Northern Lake Michigan. A heavy blanket of snow has been building up in the woods since early November and the inland lakes have had a solid covering of ice since December. Shelf ice, stacked ten or fifteen feet in places, has been building on Lake Michigan for weeks.Sheriff Ray Elkins, responding to a late-night home invasion call, discovers the brutal murder of a local artist at her home deep in the woods. Elkins works to understand complex lives and relationships as he pursues a brilliant and brutal adversary.