The past comes back to haunt the residents of Barrow, Pa., when their normally sleepy town is rocked by the discovery of a local girl's remains washed up on the riverbank. Not since the double murder at the Garrison mansion decades earlier has anything so tragic occurred there. Robert and Erica, the two siblings orphaned that violent night so long ago, find themselves again caught up in the terror. Erica, now married and a successful art dealer, is missing, and the new police chief, Connor, with whom she has been having an affair, fears the worst. Although Connor, as well as the rest of the town, assumes the murderer is Robert?known to the locals as "the fool on the hill" because of his irrational rantings and reclusive lifestyle?no one has been able to prove it. Afraid Erica may have set out to find the truth on her own, Connor makes her case top priority, but time is running out. Prescott effectively captures the pain experienced by his characters and how it leads them to terrifying acts of desperation.
