Reeling from guilt and haunted by the recent loss of one of her deputies, Sheriff Rebecca West doesn't have time to recover before Shadow Island delivers yet another blow. The island's most beloved teacher has mysteriously disappeared on the night of her retirement party, her wallet, keys, and cell phone still in her unlocked car. If Rebecca doesn't want the missing woman to join the island's growing list of corpses, she's got to focus on the present. Even as the past tries to rip her apart. When the woman's body is found with a cryptic, blood-spattered note--penned in her own handwriting--stuffed in her blouse pocket, one thing is clear. Not everyone loved the veteran schoolteacher. But who would hate her enough to slit her throat? With suspects that span the length and breadth of the island, from a potentially violent husband grappling with early-onset dementia to almost every islander the victim once taught, Rebecca finds herself immersed in a web of deceit and vendetta. The more witnesses Rebecca interviews, the more rumors and conflicting stories arise--and the bigger the pool of suspects grows. But when another, even bloodier murder occurs on school grounds, Rebecca must work faster. A killer with a grudge against people who worked at the school is lurking...and he's escalating.