When a talented young flautist inexplicably hangs herself, her brother is convinced her death is murder in disguise. Private investigator Gayle Fisher is broke enough to accept a fat retainer to prove her client is correct — and that there's a killer lurking in the touristy Lake Michigan community of Shore Haven.

Going undercover as a nurse's aide, she gains employment in the dead woman's rambling Victorian, where a decidedly unbereaved husband, a guileless sister-in-law and a father suffering from Alzheimer's raise her suspicions. Soon, layers of bitter silence and deep hatred give Gayle a choice of motives. But the darkest discovery remains half-buried in a shocking twist that puts Gayle in a face-off with a killer who knows how to keep a secret…and murder with ease.