Everybody thought the banker surprised by car-jackers was dead and buried until a photograph of him taken by his captors turns up. If the banker is alive, then whose ashes are buried in his grave?

Eddie's chase after the story takes him across many neighborhoods of his home and crime beat, Lowell, Massachusetts, and deep into his own famiy's dark secrets. What he hears are the echoes of a forgotten crime. What he finds are bodies blocking his path.... Someone is killing off his sources.

High tension, dark doings, and a real surprise mark this exciting novel.

Reviews

*STARRED REVIEW*

Arsenault's second mystery about investigative reporter Eddie Bourque, who's now scraping out a living writing and teaching in the mill town of Lowell, Mass., is even better than his Shamus-finalist debut, Spiked (2003). Like Archer Mayor in his Vermont-set Joe Gunther series, Arsenault excels at depicting ordinary folks adjusting to changing economic circumstances. He

also has an abiding respect for the role of print journalism in telling their stories. "News writers can't afford writer's block; it's a luxury for

people without deadlines," Bourque muses as he sits in a Lowell diner and punches into his laptop a story for the Associated Press about banker Roger Lime, supposedly carjacked and burned to death, who suddenly resurfaces alive six months later, as shown in a kidnapper's photo sent to Lime's wife. The published story brings a letter from Bourque's older brother, Hank, who's serving a life sentence for murder. "I know who's doing this," Hank writes, sending Bourque off on a dark and dangerous search for truths both personal and public. Arsenault's extremely likable hero has a knack for getting info from tough female cops, but best of all, he's a completely believable journalistic icon--a man who makes the right choices because he believes in the value of his work. -- PUBLISHER WEEKLY

• • •

Could the working class towns of New England be the setting for a new mystery subgenre? There are Archer Mayor's books about Vermont cop Joe Gunther, and now Mark Arsenault patrols the shabby streets of Lowell,

Massachusetts in his second novel about reporter and teacher Eddie Borque - a man who believes that newpapers are the highest form of journalism. When a local banker who was carjacked and then burned to death six months before reappears (in a new photograph sent to his wife), Eddie writes a

high-profile story for the Associated Press. This results in a letter from Borque's older brother Hank, a man he's never met who is serving a life

sentence for murder. "I know who's doing this," Hank writes from prison, sending Bourque off on a personal and professional journey. Arsenault's plot

is intriguing, but what you'll remember most is the conviction that Eddie brings to his newspaper work. -- Dick Adler, Crime Watch Columnist, ChicagoTribune 2/6/2005