When psychology professor Redmond McClain joins the Ravenslake University faculty in Pleasanton, Ohio, he and artist wife Jennifer enjoy the historic town, thrilling athletic and cultural events, and interesting new friends. They learn that Anita Parmalee, onetime Pleasanton resident, recently fell to her death at their favorite place-the Grand Canyon. On Fall Break in Flagstaff, local professor Margo Layne tells them of Anita's affluent background. But Pleasantonian, Tierney Thornhill, tells a quite different story of Anita. They speculate on how the promiscuous Anita acquired money in Arizona. At Grounds for Thinking, a coffee shop and used bookstore, Jen prices book acquisitions for the shop. She discovers a cryptic note in an untraceable book. What could it mean-murder? Speculations, insights, and discoveries pull crimes separated by years and distance together in the lively minds of Mac and Jen. Then a horrific here-and-now killing shocks peaceful Pleasanton. Mac and Jen can't know their insatiable curiosity puts them in deadly peril-but that knowledge is coming