The multi-award-winning team of Margaret Maron and Judge Deborah Knott return for their third case, involving commercial fishermen, sportsmen, and real-estate developers—one which ends up not only in court, but in murder.

It's springtime on the North Carolina coast and Judge Knott has been asked to fill in for an ailing colleague in Beaufort, a picturesque old fishing village. Sleek yachts and tall ships from all over the world dock at the newly-restored piers, bringing transient glimpses of wealth and power to the local fishermen. Yet Beaufort is also an arena for struggle between developers and commercial fishing interests.

Deborah prefers peace and quiet to island politics, but violence intrudes. When she and a teenage fisherman go clamming, they find Tink Taylor, a popular commercial fisherman and a voice of reason in the community, lying facedown in six inches of seawater—a ragged exit wound staining the beach. Before Deborah can find out if his death is a hunting accident or murder, she's confronted with some business from her own past. A second killing occurs and a former lover is accused of murder.