(This is a "Sequel Series" to the Jack Turner Suspense Series - picks right up after Book 4 but can easily be read first) In Book 1 of the new Joe Boyd Suspense Series, Lt. Joe Boyd and his partner Hank Jensen have been tasked with creating a brand new Cold Case Squad for the Culpepper Police Department. Hoping to garner some much-needed positive publicity, their captain asks them to solve a string of unsolved murders from the 1980’s. Before they get far, Joe is interrupted with an alarming request from his good friend, Professor Jack Turner. Jack and Rachel believe they have stumbled upon evidence of a horrific crime dating back to the early 60’s, when their lake front house was built. Now it looks like Joe’s first case—instead of creating good publicity—might expose a terrible scandal involving a prominent Culpepper family’s ugly secret, one they’ve managed to keep hidden for over 50 years.

Lieutenant Joe Boyd takes his family on a much-needed camping trip in the beautiful lakefront woods outside of town. But a leisurely trail walk with Chance, their new dog, goes haywire when he breaks loose. When they finally reach him, he’s digging furiously. What the dog finds, turns their vacation upside down and launches Joe and his partner into a puzzling cold case homicide from the late 1980s. As they begin to unravel the evidence—aided by two women from a local writer’s group—things start to point to an unlikely set of culprits. Their identities—if known—would shock the entire town. Some people will do anything to keep a thirty-year-old secret from seeing the light of day.

Lieutenant Joe Boyd gets some surprising news from his wife, Kate. He barely has time to process it when he’s given an assignment to confront an aging ex-con, just paroled for a brutal murder committed 36 years ago. The man’s on his way back there now, even though he has no friends and no family left in Culpepper. The chief’s convinced this can only mean trouble. When Joe and his partner Hank visit Sam Clemens, their instincts tell them there might be more to this story than anyone imagines. Much more. But their captain, the courts, and everyone else in town believes this murder was solved decades ago. Are they right? Is a paroled killer coming back to town now? Or has the real killer been here all along, roaming the streets of their lovely little town?