Death in Dexter — Blake Banner

There hadn't been a crime in Dexter, upstate New York, since 1865. It was a long time coming, but when it came, on the 21st September, 2012, it was ugly. It was murder.

It was the murder of a seventeen year-old girl, beaten, raped and strangled, then stabbed in the heart with a hunting knife. The DNA recovered from the corpse was contaminated and corrupted, but the DNA recovered from her clothes at home was clear. It was her stepfather's, just like the fingerprints on her arms and her face where she had been beaten. It should heave been an open and shut case, but there was a problem. When seventeen year-old Debbie was being murdered, her step father was drinking beer with the deputy.

So who killed Debbie Smith?

Seven years after the murder, the sheriff of Franklin County wants an answer. And he's heard that the 43rd in the Bronx has a team who specialize in cracking cold cases. But as the fall sets in in upstate new York, this case may be just too cold to crack.

Or too hot…