In the hill country of rural West Virginia, three retired men are brutally murdered while having their morning coffee in the local café. A prosecuting attorney, Bella Elkins, becomes involved after the crime’s only witness, her daughter Carly, identifies the murderer as a young man who was pushing drugs at a party she had attended. While clues lead Bella closer to the world of illegal prescription drug trading, Carly decides to track the killer on her own, and discovers her snooping mother is the killer’s next target.

While surly Carly, unhappy with her parents’ divorce and wanting to return to DC to be with her father, receives her due, Bella is the main focus of Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Julia Keller’s first work of fiction, and a more complex character would be hard to find: At the age of ten she witnessed her elder sister murder their sexually abusive father; as an orphan she went from one foster home to another but survived, earned a law degree, wed another lawyer, and moved to DC. After the marriage foundered, Bella returned to her roots along with her teenage daughter.

If you are a reader who enjoys multiple plots and detailed back stories, this is the book for you. In addition to the murders, the drug investigation, and the search to uncover the identity of the ‘boss’ behind the drug ring, there is the back story of Bella’s youth, her relationships with her jailed sister and her divorced husband, and her dealings with the sheriff and the other townspeople. Add to that Carly’s struggles with teenage angst and the efforts of the killer to avoid capture. Although Keller ties it all up fairly well, I had trouble accepting the identity of the main villain. The announcement comes out of nowhere and is in violation of the clues that have come before. My reaction was disappointment at the conclusion of an otherwise fine story.