In quaint Newbury, Conn., real estate broker Ben Abbott gets caught in a nasty land battle between two neighbors: cantankerous Vietnam vet Richard Butler, whose troubled, violent son Dicky, has just been released from jail, and Harry King, a high-powered former diplomat and owner of Fox Trot estate, who wants Abbott to act as mediator in buying a sliver of Butler's property that juts into Fox Trot. King is creating a lake by damming a stream, but an explosion during a fancy lawn party blows up the dam and turns the lake into a mud pond. In the sloppy remains, Abbott steps on parts of Dicky Butler's body. Since the local sheriff is a dolt, Abbott starts detecting.
- ISBN10 0743487044
- ISBN13 9780743487047
- Publish Date 31 August 2004 (first published 17 November 1997)
- Publish Status Transferred
- Out of Print 25 November 2006
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Simon & Schuster
- Imprint ibooks Inc
- Format Paperback
- Pages 336
- Language English