[1] The story takes place mainly in the small-town mountain community of Nota Lake, California, where Kinsey has inherited a client named Selma Newquist from her periodic boyfriend Robert Dietz.

Their respective wives, as well as Selma's 25-year-old son by her first marriage, Brant, are more helpful, as is California Highway Patrol officer James Tennyson, who found Tom's body.

A search of Tom's home office reveals nothing more than some doodling and a list of phone numbers; but it seems someone is worried about what Kinsey might find when she is first threatened by a masked driver, then attacked in her hotel cabin.

Now enduring open hostility in the town and unsure whom she can trust, Kinsey discovers that Rafer's daughter Barrett has had Tom's missing field notes since his death.

Richard Lipez, writing for The Washington Post, gave the book a generally favorable review, complimenting Grafton's portrayal of an insular small town which protects its own secrets.