Solitude

Reachable only by the once-daily mail boat from Windeport, Carpenter's Island is a small, peaceful community catering to the discriminating tourist wanting to truly get away from everything. Comprised of a small fishing village at one end of the rugged, forested island and a modest seaside resort at the other, it's the epitome of picture-perfect vacation spots the State of Maine is known for, though one that paradoxically prefers to keep itself out of the limelight in deference to its well-heeled visitors. Not being the target audience for the island (and rarely one to take extended vacations in the first place), Sean Colbeth jumps at the chance to experience the magic firsthand when a friend asks him to housesit for a few weeks. There could be worse ways to spend the sultry days of August, but after the turbulent events of his summer, Sean figures he could use the time to regroup and plan his new future with the Maine State Police.

That effort becomes something of a challenge when he unexpectedly encounters Dr. Suzanne Kellerman on the sidewalk of the fishing village; Sean's uncertain if her chilly all-business attitude is a reflection of where their relationship currently stands or simply a result of having been summoned from the mainland to deal with a medical emergency. Opting to preserve what little detente they still have - and unwilling to risk his heart again - Sean submerges his feelings and decides to give her a wide berth. It's a winning strategy right up until the evening Suzanne appears on his doorstep deadly certain someone on the island has used an outbreak of food poisoning to cover the murder of an attendee at a wedding between a native son and his bride-to-be from Boston.

Forced to begin his role as Statewide Commander of Major Crimes a few weeks early, Sean is drawn into the complicated dynamics of two families from wildly different social strata attempting to merge, families that have unexpected connections within the small island community. Knowing that the killer can't get off the island until the next arrival of the mail boat only heightens Sean's urgency at unmasking them and the intriguing secret they had hoped to keep hidden - a secret that threatens to shatter the peace that is Carpenter's Island trade-in-stock.