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An unlikely ensemble recounts the devious events that led to a grisly Halloween murder.

Simon Dobias is a Chicago law professor vying for tenure. He’s been contentedly, if not happily, married to his wife, Vicky, a social worker at Safe Haven, for nearly a decade. He’s also reignited an affair with a beautiful woman from his distant past after a chance meeting outside of Bloomingdale’s on Michigan Avenue. What begins with matching burner phones and clandestine meetings ends with a Grim Reaper costume and the brutal slaying of Simon’s lover. But whatever else you think you know in this twisty, intricately plotted story is likely wrong. As narrated by Simon, the obvious murder suspect; the equally unscrupulous Vicky; and Sgt. Jane Burke, the Grace Village officer charged with solving the upscale suburb’s first homicide—and at least one surprise narrator—we learn about Simon’s relationship with ill-fated bombshell Lauren Betancourt, the circumstances surrounding her death, and the subsequent criminal investigation. Murder is far from the only crime committed among this shady lot, though, or even the most recent; the full extent of these devious characters’ various schemes and revenge plots is revealed in carefully scattered clues leading to a shocking, if somewhat improbable, conclusion. Even seasoned mystery readers won’t be able to predict all the knots in Simon and Vicky’s tangled web of deception.

A roller-coaster ride full of unexpected twists and turns.