(Formerly Dead of Winter) Winston Crisp, retired National Security Agent, is back in the thick of a murder investigation with more twists and turns than the coastline of Penobscot Island, its Maine setting. Although he barely survived his last adventures in A Show of Hands, Crisp's deductive instincts are still intact, even when faced with such baffling evidence as a corpse with tears in its eyes, shriveled feet, bruised knees, and a missing shoe. With his remarkable code-breaking and sleuthing skills, octogenarian Crisp uncovers a multilayered plot with roots in two other unexplained deaths, including that of a WWI German spy.