Point No Point — Mary Logue

RISING HEAT

Summer is beating down on Pepin County, Wisconsin, and deputy sheriff Claire Watkins is beginning to sweat. First, there's a floater -- an unidentified male shot in the gut. Next, a frantic phone call from an old friend, Chet Baldwin, found sobbing and lying next to his dead wife, Anne, shot in the head. Murder or suicide? Claire suspects the former, but it puts a huge strain on her relationship with live-in boyfriend, Rich, also Chet's best friend.

Things go from bad to worse when Chet attempts suicide in custody and Claire begins to second-guess her instincts. A broken arm and a tortured conscience add to her struggle, especially when she begins to suspect that the body in the water and the death of Anne Baldwin may be linked. The how and the why soon lead to more tragedy, as the complexities of the human heart prove love and death are often inexorably linked.