The Unshared Grave

When county officials call Maren Holloway to identify skeletal remains pulled from the silt of Lake Aschem, she is told only that she is listed as next of kin on record. The bones belong to a man no one in town will name, and before Maren can refuse the inheritance of his secrets, Deputy Cal Riser arrives to inform her that the sheriff's office is closing the case as accidental drowning. Della Marsh, the county clerk with steady eyes and a steadier agenda, insists the burial proceed without delay. A plot has been prepared , an unshared grave, paid for in cash by a woman who never came forward. Refusing to let the stranger disappear nameless, Maren begins pulling threads that unravel the town's careful quiet. She finds Phila Aungst, a widow who kept ledgers no one asked to see. She finds Bette Ohlin, who remembers a night the rest of the lake has chosen to forget. She finds Etienne Voss and Tobias Vahn, whose names appear on documents that should not exist. She finds Doryan and Gavin Pyle, brothers whose cooperation was negotiated long before Maren arrived. And she finds Jessine Hale and Ila Holloway , women whose silence was bought, and whose graves may one day be unshared too. The sheriff's widow is watching. Sela Ardent is already asking questions. And Esme , whoever Esme is , left a key in the dead man's pocket that opens something other than a door. Maren can walk away now and let the grave stay shared by none. Or she can open what Esme locked away , and let the town bury her alongside it.