The mysterious, violent death of a prominent New England patriarch exposes a nest of dark family secrets in bestselling author Richard North Pattersons twentieth compelling novel. Adam Blaine arrives on the island of Marthas Vineyard to attend the funeral of his estranged father, Ben Blaine, a famous and charismatic writer who has served as patriarch of his clan for many years. A man fond of sailboats, good wine, and women other than his wife, Ben Blaine has left behind a string of secrets in addition to an emotionally distraught widow and his strangely aloof mistress, Carla Pacelli, a beautiful television actress who once had a drug problem. As soon as Adam arrives, he discovers that Ben has disinherited his mother, uncle, and brother in favor of his lover, and begins to wonder if his fathers death—caused by an inexplicable fall from a cliff—might be murder.
