Private Investigator Sharon McCone has just returned from Carson
City, Nevada, after surprising herself and her large circle of
family and friends by eloping with longtime significant other, the
dashing Hy Ripinsky. They attend a hastily arranged reception and
the champagne is still bubbly when Hy is called away on business
and Sharon is cornered by her friend Rae to dig up a cold case for
a friend.

Sharon's PI business is booming. She has come a long way from the
All Souls Legal Cooperative in the 1970s. She has expanded her
investigative staff to handle all the new business piling up, even
during her brief escape to Nevada. Digging into the 22-year-old
sudden disappearance of Laurel Greenwood --- wife and mother of two
small daughters --- is not at the top of her priority list.

She agrees to interview the now-grown daughter and is given a large
retainer and reluctantly consents to talk to authorities and other
family members. It is quickly apparent that things don't quite add
up. As the case unfolds, the daughter vanishes as suddenly and
mysteriously as her mother. Members of Sharon's extended family
find themselves entwined in the mystery that begins to point away
from suicide or murder to something more sinister. Meanwhile,
Sharon and Hy's unconventional marriage, off to anything but an
idyllic start, seems downright stable and normal compared to the
fractured relationships among the family members of the missing
woman. 

The complex emotional relationships that surface are skillfully
woven into the plot, which twists and turns like the scenic wine
country roads along the Northern California coastal region Sharon
travels as she embarks on the search.

Laurel Greenwood may be one of Marcia Muller's more complicated and
interesting characters, and she treats the complexities of Laurel's
troubled past with page-turning intrigue. McCone fans can look
forward to Muller's increasingly polished style of storytelling,
and they will be treated to a travelogue of some of America's most
beautiful country.