2019 recipient of the Derrick Murdoch award from the Crime Writers of Canada What would it be like to return to your hometown after twenty-five years in prison for a crime you have maintained you did not commit? And why would you return?Walter Desmond is back in Trafalgar, British Columbia, having been officially exonerated when new evidence showed corruption at worst, incompetence at best, by the Trafalgar City Police running the investigation. His pitbull attorney is seeking five million in damages from the provincial government. But Walt has not returned to Trafalgar to pursue money or revenge. He just wants to know the why of it.The family of the murdered girl, Sophia D'Angelo, is bitterly determined to see Walt returned to prison—or dead. But for Trafalgar's police, including Sergeant John Winters and Constable Molly Smith, the reality is: if Walter didn't kill Sophia, someone else did.So, case reopened. It lands on Winters' desk. The records are moldering. One investigating offic