Joe Gunther faces painful shadows from his past when a cold case heats up in the 15th police procedural starring the Brattleboro, VT detective. When Klaus Oberfeldt died as a result of the injuries he suffered during the robbery of his store, rookie Joe Gunther--preoccupied by his wife's rapidly failing health--let the primary suspect slip through his fingers and then buried the case for the next 32 years. His failure to act continues to haunt him. When a woman shoots her ex-husband in a domestic dispute, Gunther discovers that the gun used was the same used in Oberfeldt's bludgeoning death, and vows to determine the connection between the two crimes.