How well do you know your friends - really, truly, know them? That's the question Police Chief Sean Colbeth finds himself asking when a local university professor living in the seaside village of Windeport is found dead in the bed of his late-model powder blue pickup truck, surrounded by five-gallon jugs of water. While it's clear he's been shot, there's no bullet, no gun, and no clear reason why the geriatric head of the Extension Service would be on anyone's hit list. Reasoning he knows his town better than anyone, Sean ignores his gut instinct to let the State take over the investigation, but finds himself asking unexpectedly hard questions of the people he thought he knew - friends, and even family members that become strangers upon further examination. As he struggles to understand the startling motive he uncovers, Sean discovers both lies and deceit just below the whitewashed exteriors of the village he's lived in his entire life. Digging deeper unearths secrets even the dead professor had hoped to keep buried; as he watches his own personal life unravel with each and every revealed clue, Sean discovers memories are long and fury can be as icy cold as the long Northeastern winters.

This isn't what success is supposed to look like. Sean Colbeth should know; as one of the most accomplished investigators in the State of Maine, the Police Chief of Windeport is used to the quiet accolades that come with a job well done. But solving the first major crime the village has seen in decades brought with it unexpected fallout: not only did he fracture relationships with just about everyone he held dear, the abrupt departure of his best friend is an open wound that refuses to heal. And when Vasily Korsokovach's absence directly contributes to the death of an elderly resident, Sean realizes his career is on the line once the Village Council puts him on administrative leave pending a full review of his department. More than aware it would be prudent to lay low - and not having anything else to do for a bit, anyway - Sean decides a change of scene is in order and heads to California to consult on a case in what he assumes will be two weeks of relatively easy work. A welcome chance to rest, recharge and reflect on his future as a cop. Except it's anything but. Unexpectedly reunited under less than ideal circumstances with his old partner, the duo quickly discover passions can be as unpredictable as the Santa Ana winds. As the duo delve further into the shocking murder of a star high school athlete, Sean realizes murder is still murder - no matter the coast.

It’s the season of miracles. At least, that’s what Windeport Police Chief Sean Colbeth is hoping for when he invites his estranged best friend to Windeport for the Christmas holiday. Miracle number one was Vasily Korsokovach picking up the phone months after abruptly exiting Sean’s life a second time; miracle number two was having him agree to leave the warm Southern California coast he nows calls home to spend ten days in the cold. If he’s truly lucky, miracle number three will see Sean finally mending a relationship he’d once held dear - without accidentally opening any old wounds. Of course, the universe had other ideas. What begins as a cozy, snowed-in Christmas holiday with friends and family becomes anything but when a tourist is found dead at the bottom of the roughest ski trail the county has to offer. And when that body unexpectedly turns out to be a college acquaintance from Dr. Suzanne Kellerman’s past, personal secrets long thought buried are rather abruptly yanked out into the open, upending any and all holiday plans. Thrust into an investigation neither wanted, Sean and Vasily are forced to work out their differences under less than ideal circumstances as they race to make sense of the senseless. For much like the Christmas Day Nor’easter, the duo are the only thing standing between a vengeful killer and their escape from justice.

Weeks after his welcome reconciliation with his best friend, Windeport Police Chief Sean Colbeth is firmly mired in the doldrums of a brutal Coastal Maine winter that just won’t quit. With snowbanks outside his office window high enough to block out what little sun they are getting—not to mention the minutiae of administering his department similarly piling up—Sean is more than looking forward to breaking the seemingly endless monotony of the season. His long-planned vacation to attend a comic book convention in Anaheim with his main squeeze is literally just what the doctor ordered, enough of a lifeline to pull him through to their departure from the Portland International Jetport. At least, that’s until an unexpected call from Vasily Korsokovach has Sean setting aside his budget spreadsheets, for the Deputy Chief at the Rancho Linda Police Department has a problem: after spending the weekend skiing in Windeport, Don Davies failed to appear for a planned family visit in California. As the family of the nationally syndicated radio program host is understandably worried—and hoping it’s nothing more than a case of crossed communications between father and daughter—Vasily asks his old friend to do a quick wellness check to give the family some peace of mind. Intent on providing that solace, Sean instead uncovers a deadly mystery with roots in Southern California—one based on a secret Davies managed to keep hidden from everyone, despite a multiple-decade career in an industry where skeletons are rarely kept in the closet. Sean pulls what threads he can in Maine, but ultimately finds himself packing his bags for the West Coast a few weeks earlier than expected. For the land of palm trees and wide sandy beaches seems to hold the key to understanding why someone felt compelled to cancel the popular radio personality.

Twenty years and a lifetime ago, Windeport Police Chief Sean Colbeth had his teenage heart badly broken when the girl he thought he loved dumped him for another guy in the most dramatic manner possible. Young love burns hot and fast, to be sure, but it wasn’t until Suzanne Kellerman stepped into his life that Sean figured out just how deep the wounds to his soul had been, and how carefully he’d been hiding them from the world. And from himself. On a sultry July 4th holiday weekend two decades later, a chance discovery in one of the last standing icehouses in the county threatens to reopen those very wounds in the cruelest possible way. Tantalizing clues emerge that connect whatever happened in that lonely spot along the St. Mark’s River to the disappearance of the very guy responsible for Sean’s torment all those years earlier, a long forgotten cold case that continues to haunt his predecessor long after retirement. Forced to revisit his childhood in a village where people have known each other for generations, Sean tries to separate fond memories from harsh realities as he pursues a killer that never expected to be hunted.

Getting away from everything can be murder.Reachable only by the once-daily mail boat from Windeport, Carpenter’s Island is a small, peaceful community catering to the discriminating tourist wanting to truly get away from everything. Comprised of a small fishing village at one end of the rugged, forested island and a modest seaside resort at the other, it’s the epitome of picture-perfect vacation spots the State of Maine is known for, though one that paradoxically prefers to keep itself out of the limelight in deference to it’s well heeled visitors. Not being the target audience for the island (and rarely one to take extended vacations in the first place), Sean Colbeth jumps at the chance to experience the magic firsthand when a friend asks him to housesit for a few weeks. There could be worse ways to spend the sultry days of August, but after the turbulent events of his summer, Sean figures he could use the time to regroup and plan his new future with the Maine State Police. That effort becomes something of a challenge when he unexpectedly encounters Dr. Suzanne Kellerman on the sidewalk of the fishing village; Sean’s uncertain if her chilly all-business attitude is a reflection of where their relationship currently stands or simply a result of having been summoned from the mainland to deal with a medical emergency. Opting to preserve what little detente they still have—and unwilling to risk his heart again—Sean submerges his feelings and decides to give her a wide berth. It’s a winning strategy right up until the evening Suzanne appears on his doorstep deadly certain someone on the island has used an outbreak of food poisoning to cover the murder of an attendee at a wedding between a native son and his bride-to-be from Boston. Forced to begin his role as Statewide Commander of Major Crimes a few weeks early, Sean is drawn into the complicated dynamics of two families from wildly different social strata attempting to merge, families that have unexpected connections within the small island community. Knowing that the killer can’t get off the island until the next arrival of the mail boat only heightens Sean’s urgency at unmasking them and the intriguing secret they had hoped to keep hidden—a secret that threatens to shatter the peace that is Carpenter’s Island trade-in-stock.