Five houses. One locked gate. A murder no one could have committed.
Claire Whittaker is found stabbed in her own rose garden at dawn, and no one saw a thing. Her neighbors were sleeping. The gate never opened all night.
December 1998. In the cliffside community of Narcissa, where the houses face inward and the residents pretend not to notice each other, Lieutenant John Coxen calls in the one person who might see what everyone else cannot.
Retired detective Athena Campbell was once known nationally as the Red Swan, a name she has spent decades trying to escape. Coming back means facing the spotlight she left the force to avoid, mentoring a young detective who does not want her help, and walking into a neighborhood where every door hides something worth killing to protect.
As winter rain sweeps in from the Pacific, Athena realizes the truth did not die with Claire but has been hiding in plain sight, waiting for her to look in the right direction.
An atmospheric whodunnit. The first in the Athena Campbell series.
