Discovering the crumbling remains of a once-fabulous hotel in the woods near her small home town, twelve-year-old cub reporter Emma Graham stumbles on clues pertaining to a forty-year unsolved crime involving deeply buried secrets.

Martha Grimes returns to her twelve-year-old heroine, Emma Graham, in this suspenseful sequel to the beloved Belle Ruin. Emma continues her investigation into the strange disappearance of the four-month-old Slade baby from the Belle Ruin Hotel, more than twenty years before. The sudden appearance in town of the baby's father, Morris Slade, makes her even more determined to learn the truth.

"Suley, Georgia, is home to Lost Lake Cottages and not much else. Which is why it's the perfect place for newly-widowed Kate and her eccentric eight-year-old daughter Devin to heal. Kate spent one memorable childhood summer at Lost Lake, had her first almost-kiss at Lost Lake, and met a boy named Wes at Lost Lake. It was a place for dreaming. But Kate doesn't believe in dreams anymore, and her Aunt Eby, Lost Lake's owner, wants to sell the place and...