Private investigator Jack Pellum has spent two years searching for the man he believes murdered his wife-a man he last saw wearing a peacoat and a fedora. Months of posting fliers and combing through crime records yield no leads. Then a local writer commits suicide, and he leaves a bewildering message that may be the first breadcrumb in a winding trail of unsolved murders... Michael Underhill is a philosophical man preoccupied by what-ifs and could-have-beens, but his life is finally coming together. He has a sweet and beautiful girlfriend, and, together, they're building their future home. Nothing will go wrong-not if Underhill has anything to say about it, but the problem is that he has a dark and secret past, and it's coming back to haunt him. Inexorably drawn together, these two men find themselves caught up in a mystery where there is far more than meets the eye and nothing can be taken for granted.