It's two weeks before Christmas 1997, and Chief Thomas Lynch faces a crisis when Cody Forrand, a six-year-old with a life-threatening medical condition, goes missing during a blizzard. The confusing case shines a national spotlight on the small, sleepy town of Idyll, Connecticut, where small-time crime is already on the rise and the police seem to be making mistakes left and right. Further complicating matters, Lynch, still new to town, finds himself the target of prank calls and hate speech that he worries is the work of a colleague, someone struggling to accept working with a gay chief of police. With time ticking away, Lynch is beginning to doubt whether he'll be able to bring Cody home safely . . . and whether Idyll could ever really be home.

In the summer of 1997, Thomas Lynch arrives as the new chief of police in Idyll, Connecticut--a town where serious crimes can be counted on one hand. So no one is prepared when Cecilia North is found murdered on a golf course. By chance, Chief Lynch met her mere hours before she was killed. With that lead, the case should be a slam dunk. But there's a problem. If Lynch tells his detectives about meeting the victim, he'll reveal his greatest secret--he's gay. So Lynch works angles of the case on his own. Meanwhile, he must contend with pressure from the mayor to solve the crime before the town's biggest tourist event begins, all while coping with the suspicions of his men, casual homophobia, and difficult memories of his former NYPD partner's recent death.As the case unfolds, Lynch realizes that small-town Idyll isn't safe, especially for a man with secrets that threaten the thing he loves most--his job.From the Trade Paperback edition.

In the small, sleepy town of Idyll, Connecticut, Police Chief Thomas Lynch assists police officer Michael Finnegan to uncover clues to his sister's disappearance two decades ago.Charleston, Massachusetts, 1972: Rookie cop Michael Finnegan gets a call from his mother. His youngest sister, Susan, has disappeared, the same sister who ran away two years earlier. Anxious not to waste police resources, Finnegan advises his family to wait and search on their own. But a week turns into two decades, and Susan is never found.Idyll, Massachusetts, 1999: In the woods outside of town, a young woman's corpse is discovered. When Police Chief Thomas Lynch notices that Finnegan seems unusually disturbed by the case, Lynch digs a little deeper and learns of Finnegan's missing sister. Despite their prickly relationship, Lynch makes a bargain with his officer: He will investigate the cold case of Finnegan's long-lost sister while Finnegan looks for clues to the body found in the...