The Scout Master — Luisa Buehler

MERIT BADGE FOR MURDER

Hoping for some quality time with her eleven-year-old stepson, Grace Marsden volunteers to accompany the Boy Scouts on a cleanup project in Robinson Woods. But along with the trash, the group unearths a World War II-era army munitions crate containing curious skeletal remains. However, the box itself, not its contents, draws FBI investigators onto the scene.

Soon after the discovery, Grace is attacked by mysterious hooded figures. Is someone trying to stop her from finding out the crate's true origin, or has a cult claimed the forest for their sinister rituals? Before long, Grace finds that friends, family and other locals are all linked to a decades-old mystery…one that speaks to the darkest side of human nature. And Grace will need more than scout's honor to survive a killer's snare -- and escape with her life.