In command of the elements of fiction, Coleman wastes no time drawing the reader in by way of a heart-pounding opening chapter — a young black woman is fleeing a second gang rape and brutalization on the beach. Stone, now chief of police in Swan Harbor, an upscale suburb north of Paradise, MA, a town that “wore its Pilgrim roots like a neon sign,” is called in to investigate soon after the coma-stricken woman is admitted to the local hospital. He finds himself pulled into a crime with wider, disturbing resonance.
