Vancouver's Sunshine Coast is one of Canada's famous beauty spots, but as fans of L.R. Wright's books know, it harbors eleventy-seven versions of crazy.

On offer here is the adolescent variety: Eliot Gardener is maddeningly sullen as only an angry fourteen-year-old can be. He's also, apparently, a double murderer, having whacked both of his parents with a machete.

There's little question that Eliot did the deed, but for Sergeant Karl Alberg it feels like a personal failure: The Coast is his patch, and he should have seen the trouble coming. He's getting ready to marry his longtime sweetheart, but the guilt is poisoning his joy--so much so that when a second killer seems to have Alberg in his sights, the threat feels almost justified.