I voluntarily read an early copy of this book.

Series: Chief Maggie Riley #5
Published by Bookouture on April 14, 2025
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Maggie’s heart pounds as she clutches the autopsy report. What she’s reading is impossible. Yesterday, a woman died in a fire. But her remains belong to someone who died twenty years ago.
When the body of Ruby Anderson is found in a burnt-out trailer, Chief Maggie Riley is called to solve the biggest case Coyote Cove has ever seen. Ruby supposedly drowned on a kayaking trip twenty years ago—how could she have been alive today?
For years there have been whispers about how Ruby died. There was one witness who swore they saw the river drag Ruby away. Ruby’s body was never found, and she was presumed dead.
But when the autopsy report is returned, Maggie makes a shocking discovery. It shows that Ruby never drowned at all. She’d been hiding in plain sight for the past twenty years. Who was she hiding from and why would they want her dead?
As Maggie unravels the web of lies around Ruby’s murder, she discovers that the witness to Ruby’s drowning is her closest colleague at the Coyote Cove Police Department. And they’re protecting a dark secret from Ruby’s past that Maggie must uncover before anyone else loses their life.
But how deep do the lies around Ruby’s death truly go? With no one to trust, Maggie needs to uncover a deadly secret alone and it lies at the heart of the police force. How much will she have to sacrifice to discover the truth?
Non-stop action and suspense! I really enjoy revisiting Maggie and her team time and time again in Shannon Hollinger’s Chief Maggie Riley series which takes place in the Maine countryside. We get answers to a few unanswered questions from the past in this book, but uncover a few more. I really would like a little better refresher of what has happened previously to keep newcomers to the series up to date and even to refresh a fan’s memory. In particular Steve’s sis wasn’t detailed in catching up the drama that put her in the state she’s currently in enough. I’m looking forward to whatever comes next in the Steve/Maggie saga and I will enjoy seeing Kal come into the forefront in a story soon. Great characters, intense drama and always intense another mystery to solve.
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