The Poisoned Rose — D. Daniel Judson

The rich don't have more secrets--they just bury them deeper

Trouble always seems to find Declan MacManus . . . and it finds him again one rain-swept October night when the part-time P.I.--and full-time outsider--gets caught in the middle of a brutal homicide. To the rich and untouchable of Southampton, longtime locals like MacManus are little more than background scenery. Set up to take the fall in a nasty case of double-dealing and multiple murder, Mac follows a serpentine trail that leads through the murky waters of his past--and into the twisted heart of a prominent East End family he once knew well. As the lines between past and present, rich and poor, right and wrong begin to blur, a decades-old secret emerges from behind the closed doors of the Hamptons' moneyed enclaves--and a town sworn to protect its own declares open season on anyone who stands in its way. Mac is first in line. . .