A high-profile murder case— A white woman has been bludgeoned to death with an altar cross in a rural church on Cicada Road in Walterboro, South Carolina. Sam Jenkins, a Black man, is found covered in blood, kneeling over the body. In a state already roiling with racial tenson, this is not only a murder case, but a powder keg.

A haunting cold case— Two young women are murdered on quiet Edisto Beach, an hour southeast of Walterboro, and the killer disappears without a trace. Thirty-four years later the mystery remains unsolved. Could there be a connection to Stander’s case?

A killer who’s watching— Stander takes on Jenkins’s defense, but he’s up against a formidable solicitor with powerful allies. Worse, his client is hiding a bombshell secret. When Addie Stone reopens the cold case, she discovers more long-buried secrets in this small town. Would someone kill again to keep them?

This was a nice, small-town mystery. As usual I did not guess the murderer but at least I wasn’t fooled by the red herrings. Those were easy to predict, and guess the real motivations behind why Sam was withholding his alibi, and such. The reason I couldn’t guess the murderer. . . even that would be a spoiler.

The text was easy to read, and those familiar with the genre will find it fits easy into the formula with relatable working-class protagonists (down on his luck lawyer hoping for redemption, and his competent ex-police officer wife), colorful cast of red herrings and a coherent puzzle that makes a fulfilling second read after you find out who the killer is.

It also has some somewhat superficial, somewhat nuanced take on race relations in contemporary South Caroline. I say somewhat superficial nuanced because it does draw a middle ground about the importance of race as a factor in criminal trials and the persecution of the public politicizing the case for their own causes. But it becomes overshadowed when the case veers into a different direction and becomes clear it’s not a real factor whereas the killer is concerned. Plus it doesn’t go to trial so there’s no point in getting into it.

Next up is a classic short story of surreal horror-The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins.