Colleen McCabe is enjoying an uneventful summer in North Carolina's Outer Banks supervising her firefighters, making rounds with her Border collie, Sparky, and keeping an eye on the wild horses escaped from the local sanctuary. But when a dead body washes up on shore, she knows trouble has arrived in Corolla.

Colleen is ready to start work on the investigation, but much to her irritation, her best friend, Sheriff Bill Dorman, makes it clear he doesn't want her butting her nose in or poking around. The stubborn Colleen, however, is not so easily deterred. When a man with a gun is...