What do a murdered private investigator, a missing cedar box, and a falsified 1988 soil survey have in common?

They all lead straight to Emma Chandler's front door.

When Mark Sterling is found strangled in a Cedar Harbor rental, the police think it's an isolated tragedy.

But café owner Emma Chandler knows better after finding Sterling's hidden surveillance photos of her own family.

The victim had stumbled onto a massive environmental cover-up involving Maggie's family land and a ruthless property developer willing to pave over anyone in his way.

As break-ins and hit-and-runs escalate, Emma teams up with Detective Ethan Carter and her amateur sleuth friends to decode Sterling's final clues.

It's a race against the clock to expose a corporate conspiracy and a blackmailer's demise before the killer permanently closes the book on Cedar Harbor.