Last Rites — Joyce Lavene; Jim Lavene

Things are heating up in Montgomery County, North Carolina. The new police department is having trouble with the local sheriff's office in Diamond Springs--feuding over jurisdiction and a new murder case.

An old Mercedes with a corpse inside is found by a troop of boy scouts out in the old Union Cemetery. Immediately, Sheriff Sharyn Howard summons her boyfriend Nick and the local Medical Examiner to sum up the crime. It appears that the man was shot twice with two different guns then buried alive trying to climb out of the car. After identifying the body, Sharyn discovers that no one, including the victim's many girlfriends and wives, have reported him missing, even though he's been gone for over eight years.

The investigation leads Sharyn and her deputies on a sad path of discovery that will change the lives of more than one person close to her. With the feud between the new police chief, her former opponent in the last sheriff's election, and her move from the old sheriff's office Sharyn has her hands full. Discoveries in the old office may lead to a conclusion in the mysterious death of her father, the former sheriff of Diamond Springs, T. Raymond Howard.

To make matters even more complicated, her old nemesis Jack Winter is back and stirring up trouble.