Marital infidelity, murder, and the threat of nuclear holocaust hangs over the heartland in the sixth installment of the popular Sam McCain mystery series. Certainly not dull is October 1962, not with Russian Premier Nikita Krushchev promising to launch Soviet nuclear weaponry from Cuba if the U.S. attempts to invade the island. For seven taut days, since the 22nd, the Kennedy White House has been facing down the Soviets with an ultimatum to dismantle their Cuban missile bases at once. Meanwhile, in Black River Falls, Iowa, private investigator Sam McCain has been dealing with a crisis of different sort. Candy Sykes is no dream client. Not only is she brassy, loud, and boorish, but she's also the daughter of McCain's longtime nemesis, the incompetent local police chief Cliffie Sykes. Nor does anyone, except Cliffie, doubt she could have killed her faithless husband. And taking no nyet for an answer, Cliffie is demanding that Sam prove him right, the town wrong, and Candy innocent. Or else

It’s 1963, in fact. June. All spring Freedom Riders have been advancing the cause of civil rights in the South, and even in the face of city commissioner “Bull” Connor’s police dogs and fire hoses demonstrators have marched through the segregated streets of Birmingham, Alabama. While no one’s marching in Black River Falls, Iowa, except maybe the high school band, the sleepy heartland town is showing signs of racial unease nonetheless. For the body of a black college student — David Leeds — has turned up dead. Close by him, in the woods just outside the town limits, lies a second victim: white; local photographer; shot twice in the face, apparently with the same weapon that got Leeds in the neck; also dead. The evidence points to blackmail, and to a scandal that could ruin the already encumbered campaign of the very white Senator Lloyd Williams for reelection, if photos exist to prove rumors that romantically link the senator’s daughter to the handsome, bright, ambitious and black — David Leeds. Prejudice runs mean and deep in Sam McCain’s hometown, as the amiable young attorney and sometime detective discovers in an investigation that takes him from the stench and suspicion of a local bikers’ club to the cliquey precincts of the martini-fortified rich

1971: When we last saw Sam McCain he had been drafted to fight the war in Vietnam. But Sam’s military career ended in boot camp when he was badly hurt in an accident that forced him to spend months recovering in a military hospital. Now Sam is back in his hometown of Black River Falls, where he works as a lawyer (and part-time investigator) for the court of the snobbish but amusing Judge Esme Ann Whitney. Enter Will Cullen, who accidentally killed a young girl during a firefight with the Viet Cong, and is deeply troubled by his wartime experiences. When Will announces that he has joined the national Vietnam Vets Against the War, many fellow vets feel he has betrayed them. But it comes as a great surprise when war vet Steve Donovan brutally belittles and savagely beats his old friend Will when he hears that Cullen has joined the anti-war group. When Donovan is found murdered, the obvious suspect is Cullen, but Sam has serious doubts about the man’s guilt. At least three people had reasons to murder Donovan, and Sam begins to suspect he’ll discover even more as his investigation heats up, in this dynamic, politically charged mystery novel by a master of the form