Deep in the woods beneath the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, a forest ranger finds the remains of a young woman who disappeared forty years ago, entombed in an old pickup truck. Back in Raleigh, the confessed killer, who is serving a life sentence for her murder, now asks Professor Simon Shaw to help prove his innocence. Reluctant to accept the case, but happy to escape the city's summer heat and his brewing romantic troubles, Shaw heads into the mountains to the scene of the crime--his hometown of Boone. Shaw puts old memories, small-town gossip, and obliging relatives to good use, but finds a surprising lack of evidence against Roy Freedman. What would drive a man to admit to a murder he didn't commit? Did Roy kill Eva Potter or was he a convenient scapegoat? A second murder disguised as an accident points Simon in the right direction, leading him to a stunning discovery hidden deep in the hills, to a secret worth lying--and killing--for.