When Dell Hinton's phone rings in the middle of the night, he knows it's bad news for someone. The Castaway County's Sheriff is called to a multiple homicide at the Black Bear truck stop. A short night has turned into a very long day. When he arrives at the gruesome scene, he learns that a game warden and two clerks are victims of an apparent robbery. With Lieutenant Frank Bell of the Maine State Police Bureau of Investigations at the helm, Dell is once again at the heart of a complex investigation. The only witness to the killings, one of the two clerks, is in a coma and there is no apparent motive besides a botched robbery, so the sheriff begins following a trail of clues that soon lead him to believe he may be dealing with a professional killer rather than an amateur thief. In this gripping mystery, a sheriff in the north woods of Maine must use his investigative skills and common sense to piece together the puzzle of what really happened at the Black Bear Truck Stop on a warm summer night.