Slipknot — Linda Greenlaw

When Jane moves back to the sleepy Maine fishing community where she was born, it's to escape the seamy crime scenes and unsavory characters that crossed her path in Miami. Surely whatever crimes are committed in touristy, idyllic Green Haven won't involve anything as nasty as what she saw in Florida. It's a bit of a shock, then, when Nick Dow, the town drunk, turns up dead, and it's not the simple accident that everyone assumes it to be. Jane soon discovers that Dow wasn't even a drunk -- it was all an act. But why? And what does it have to do with a heated town hall meeting about fishing rights and paternity suits? The more Jane digs, the more confused she gets. Only two things are certain: Nothing is what it seems; and the whole town is in each other's business. But it's not until Jane impulsively hops on a boat with the killer -- a boat that suddenly heads out to sea -- that things become downright dangerous . . .