Additional information
by Richard J. Cass (Author)
Everyone has a past. Some are willing to kill to keep it buried.
Former Army CID investigator Ardmore Theberge returns to Portland, Maine, determined to start over after a violent incident ends his military career. His plan is simple: build a quiet business drawing hand-crafted maps and stay out of trouble.But trouble finds him anyway.
When a powerful real estate developer is murdered inside a small stationery shop owned by Ardmore's new friend Rebekah Horvath, suspicion falls on her developmentally disabled son, Robbie. Before Ardmore can prove the boy's innocence, Robbie vanishes--turning a local tragedy into something far more dangerous.
As Ardmore digs deeper, he uncovers a conspiracy reaching far beyond Portland. Two ambitious politicians are desperate to acquire Rebekah's properties, tied to a secret buried years earlier during her time in the Foreign Service overseas. And standing in Ardmore's way is Roger McGinty--the officer whose brutal actions in Iraq led to the confrontation that destroyed Ardmore's career.
Now Ardmore must untangle a web of political corruption, old betrayals, and personal vendettas to find a missing boy and expose the truth--before his past catches up with him and another innocent life is lost.
Author Biography
Richard Cass is the author of the seven-book Elder Darrow jazz mystery series. The first book in the series won the 2018 Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction. The fifth, Sweetie Bogan's Sorrow, won the Nancy Pearl Librarian's Prize for Genre Fiction. His Maine-based Ardmore Therberge thriller series launched with The Last Altruist, and he has also published a short story collection, Gleam of Bone.
Cass holds a graduate degree in writing from the University of New Hampshire, where he studied with Thomas Williams, Jr. and Joseph Monninger. His short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Playboy, Gray's Sporting Journal, ZZYZVA, Tough, Shotgun Honey and Best Short Stores of the American West. He is a regular contributor to the Maine Crime Writers blog. He is a lecturer at OLLI, and he lives in Cape Elizabeth, Maine with his wife Anne.
Number of Pages: 284
Dimensions: 0.8 x 8.6 x 5.5 IN
Publication Date: September 01, 2026
