On a stifling mid-summer day, 11-year-old Claire Hofer sets out carrying lunch to her father who's at work raking hay. As she nears the field, she sees only Township Constable John McIntire. Claire's father, Reuben, is dead.

Reuben Hofer and his family have hardly lived in the old St. Adele schoolhouse long enough to make enemies. Their only contact has been with Doctor Mark Guibard, who's been attending Hofer's chronically ill, morbidly obese wife.
But McIntire thinks there might be more to Reuben's story. The victim's years in the CPS camps, followed by a stretch in federal prison, made him a stranger to his children-until he returned home to become their overlord. To find Rueben's killer, McIntire must confront a fumbling nemesis in the bewildered, but determined, Claire.

Kathleen Hills has published several short mystery stories, and three other John McIntire mysteries.
www.kathleenhills.com