Carystown, Kentucky, is still scarred by the mysterious disappearance two years ago of Isabella Moon. Faced with an almost complete lack of evidence - lack, even, of a body - the case of the missing girl is still open, and, though the commotion and media circus which engulfed the small town has long since subsided, frustrated Sheriff Bill Delaney is no nearer a resolution.

Kate Russell has found in sleepy Carystown a refuge from the horrors of her past: those she fears can't reach her here, and with the handsome Caleb she at last dares to feel safe. But in an instant her quietly idyllic life is turned upside down, and a reluctant Kate finds herself at the centre of the case of missing Isabella.

Kate knows where Isabella's hidden grave lies, and, torn between finding justice for Isabella and her own fears, she knows she must go to the authorities. But before long it becomes clear that she herself is a suspect, her past under the unwelcome scrutiny of Sheriff Delaney.

For Kate has long-buried secrets of her own that the Sheriff's enquiries are threatening to uncover. And as she is drawn further into the investigation, some unsettling truths emerge; the charming façade of Carystown starts to crumble - the small town will be forever changed by the disappearance of Isabella Moon, a community undone by murder, secrets, and lies...

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, Laura Philpot Benedict worked in public radio and sales promotion before marriage took her to West Virginia, where she began her own copywriting and marketing company. She has received a West Virginia Arts and Humanities Fellowship Grant and a Greenbrier Artists Stipend Grant for her fiction. Her short stories have been published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and in the 6th Annual Writer's Digest Short, Short Story Competition Collection. She is a freelance book reviewer for The Grand Rapids Press (Michigan) and other newspapers. She resides in southern Illinois with her husband and two children.Isabella Moonis her first novel.