The River in Winter — David Small

The River in Winter is the story of seventeen-year-old Joe Weatherfields attempt to find love, mercy, and redemption in a world charged with the moral wreckage of family decisions made long before he was born. His search carries him from Massachusetts to Florida and finally to Dunnocks Head, Maine, where he rediscovers his long-estranged grandfather and quickly becomes involved in a kidnapping, a murder, and a long-buried scandal all of which leads him to the hard irredeemable lesson that the innocent are often as guilty as the damned.