Displaced New Yorkers January and Barrett Lamont have adjusted to rural Pennsylvania life. The international thieves who forced them to flee are imprisoned or deported. Barrett buys his retiring accountant’s practice for $1, and January pursues her fledgling ad agency. Their three alpacas and 13-year-old owner are thriving on their farmette. What could fracture this idyllic existence? Murder! Walter, Barrett’s benefactor and savior from the mob, is slain in his accounting office and Barrett stands accused. Once the zealous prosecutor’s case is quashed, the pair face the daunting task of deciphering Walter’s files and honoring his final wish—to locate and deliver his late wife’s secret file to a stranger from her distant past. Walter’s cause of death takes an ominous twist—the obvious stab to the heart by a bodkin, but with the lethal presence of brown recluse spider venom. The beloved town hero, Walter had no enemies, and law enforcement is stumped. The determined Lamonts dig in, attracting the wrath of an unknown killer with no apparent connection to Walter. His late wife’s secrets lead January to decades-old friendships and two more grisly murders while becoming targets of multiple attempts on their lives.
