Part of Virgil Flowers, book 10
First published 2017
Virgil Flowers thought he was done with Trippton, Minnesota. Years ago he exposed the murderous corruption in the local school board. Now he's back because someone discovered a woman's corpse encased in solid ice. The timing connects to a twenty year high school class reunion scheduled for midwinter. Virgil pulls his coat tight against the cold and starts digging into two decades of grudges and secrets. Every lead takes him deeper into the toxic relationships that began in those school hallways. Former classmates harbor resentments that never died. Old wounds still bleed. The investigation forces Virgil to untangle a web of betrayals that stretches back to teenage years. As he interviews reunion attendees and digs through their shared history, the detective realizes that some people never escape their high school selves. The frozen victim represents just the latest casualty in conflicts that began with locker room humiliations and cafeteria hierarchies. Virgil must solve the murder before the reunion becomes a killing ground.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, investigation
Setting: Trippton, Minnesota
Period: Twenty Years Ago, Present Day
400 pages · ebook · G. P. Putnam and Sons