After some rocky times, both personally and financially, Pat and J.P. Britton are taking a much needed day together without the kids to do some shopping in Oklahoma City, with plans to return home by eight pm. As news of the Murrah Building bombing breaks, Joe Paul, Jr. isn't too worried about his parents, since their plans didn't include being in downtown Oklahoma City. When Thomas falls and breaks his arm after school, Dale calls an ambulance, but can't reach his parents, who don't carry a pager or cell phone. Eight o'clock comes and goes and Pat and J.P. aren't home. When days turn into weeks, months, then years without a trace of them, the Britton boys and other families in central Oklahoma discover an awful truth. A lot of people didn't make it home after the Oklahoma City bombing, but not all of them went missing because of it. With no solid leads for two years, the authorities finally get a break in 1997 when the bodies of five people missing since March 19,1995 turn up on the hoods of vehicles on the Mile of Cars. This jumpstarts the investigation at a roller coaster pace, which comes to a startling conclusion as the deadly F5 tornado rips through Bridge Creek and Moore in 1999. Mile of Cars Murders is a follow-up to Harwell's 2012 novel, Payne County Weekly.