After an auto accident that left her husband dead and her daughter injured, Ruby Crane leaves her job as a graphologist with a detective agency in California. Retreating to the peaceful Michigan town where she grew up seems the best course to help her daughter heal. But Ruby's unique crime-solving expertise is put to the test in the case of her life when a murderous scheme erupts too close to home. Jo Dereske is the author of the popular Miss Zukas mysteries.

The strangulation death of a woman from Ruby Crane's small Michigan town ignites a chilling investigation into the dark side of the quiet community—and Ruby Crane becomes the target of a killer. When she strikes up an acquaintance with the mysterious stranger across the lake, she finds an ex-cop who's willing to help her. But he has his own dark secrets that drove him to this small town—secrets he wants no one to know.

They were sisters separated by distance, hurt and secrets. Now murder is bringing them together.... It was a long way from northern Michigan to the mountains above Albuquerque. But the distance between Ruby Crane and her glamorous, successful sister, Phyllis, was even greater. Until Phyllis trekked through the Michigan snow in her designer boots to beg Ruby for help. And while Ruby knew there were some things she couldn't help her sister with—like her drinking—she couldn't say no to a matter of life and death. A boy had died on a construction site, and Phyllis, the engineer on the project, was being blamed—for a design she claimed someone had altered. While Ruby, an expert in handwriting analysis, tries to find out if the designs are forgeries, a sudden, vicious murder changes everything. Now a stalker is lurking around Phyllis' once-elegant life. And for the two sisters, the time has come for unspoken words—and a fight for both of their lives....