After the drowning death of his wife and the suicide of his brother at the family’s lodge in the Catskills, patrolman Dan Stone vows he’ll never return. But then the unthinkable happens: One family sells property to a developer, breaking an unwritten law—never sell to outsiders.  The developer intends to build luxury homes—and someone else intends to stop him. First, it was graffiti, vandalism, and malicious letters. But soon it ratchets up to arson. Is this the work of one person? Or more? Local? Or eco-terrorists? Will it go as far as murder?

When the locals stonewall police investigators, Stone’s boss asks him to go to Hemlock Lake. As a local, Stone may have greater success. He refuses at first, but changes his mind. It might be good after all to confront those ghosts, those memories of his past, in order to move on. Back at Hemlock Lake, however, Stone discovers homecomings aren’t always pleasant.

Author Carolyn J. Rose’s Hemlock Lake is a page-turner that captures the fiercely independent spirit of small-town residents resistant to change. Distinct, richly drawn characters, ominous cliffhangers, and ever-ratcheting tension prove Rose has the storytelling chops to deliver a good mystery.