When Brooklyn-based import-export attorney Hector Adagio shows up at Harry's job asking questions about a coworker with a mysterious past, Cogbill is stuck holding the loose ends he left dangling when the Greek Mob pulled out of King George County. With a former coworker wanted for murder, another friend dead, and Harry's still-young marriage tested by his turbulent mental health, Cogbill must finally learn to own his decisions and accept the consequences, or lose everything he loves. An unemployed war veteran investigates a tragic crime in Gates' 1960-set mystery novel, the second in a series. Harry Cogbill has gotten himself fired again. This time it's from the combination restaurant-gift shop across the river from his home in King George County, Virginia, where he worked as a grill cook. After getting startled by a New York mafioso in the restaurant, Cogbill, a shell-shocked World War II vet, blacked out and roughed up his boss. His unemployment is not well received by his wife, Ethel Burkitt, who wants better things for Harry and isn't afraid to give him the cold shoulder to force him in the right direction. A few days after the firing, while hunting for a new job, Harry learns that one of his co-workers at the restaurant, William Johnson, is now wanted for stabbing a man to death. Harry can't believe the young Black man—a good kid—would do such a thing and assumes he's being scapegoated. After speaking to the young man's family, Cogbill learns the still-at-large William did commit the murder, though Cogbill can't figure out why. Putting his job search on hold, Cogbill turns amateur detective—a role he's played in the past—in order to get to the bottom of the crime. Doing so, he'll run up against the worst that King George County has to offer: transplant mobsters, local crooks, and the deeply entrenched racism of the South. Can Cogbill once again quiet his demons, catch the bad guys, and get back in good with his Ethel? Gates' measured prose carries a tinge of the Southern Gothic, lending a biblical weight to the narrative: "The weather had turned cold and the sun had begun its annual retreat to the throne of judgment from which it cast its pale, solitary eye upon the grey and barren earth." Though he trades in the tropes of the crime novel, Gates is most deeply interested in the psychology of his characters and the way they fit (or don't) in the world. Fans of the previous Harry Cogbill novel will not be disappointed. A stylish and thoughtful crime novel. -- Kirkus Reviews Sean Gates is the author of the Harry Cogbill series, "The Dark and Lonely Road" and "In the Trackless Wild." He is also the co-writer of several screenplays, including the short film "Lookout Mountain" and 2018 Final Draft Big Break top-five finalist "Shotgun & Lollipop." A graduate of Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, Sean has worked as a freelance graphic artist, and as a typesetter and imager for a now-defunct print shop in Fredericksburg. He is the co-founder of Project94, an independent non-profit news service covering his hometown of King George County. By day he poses as a mild-mannered stock clerk who enjoys coffee, pizza, and outlaw country.