When retired homicide detective Thomas Prescott learns he’s inherited a 120-acre farm in Tarrin, Missouri (pop. 2,100), he can’t get there fast enough. As he slowly acclimates to small town living, he hears rumblings about a horrific crime in the town’s past. Four years earlier, a recently fired employee of the local grocery store enacted his revenge, shooting and killing the owner of the store, plus four customers, then turning the gun on himself. The crime appears to have been solved, but Prescott has his doubts.
Balancing farm life and a budding romance with the town veterinarian, Prescott begins reinvestigating the crime. On the surface, the case is cut and dry—a revenge killing gone bad. But what if revenge wasn’t the motive? What if the store owner wasn’t the target?
One by one, Prescott delves into the victims’ pasts. As Prescott digs deeper, he discovers the murders were twenty years in the making and soon finds himself in the unfamiliar waters of Big Biotech, GMOs, political payoffs, hired mercenaries, and the shadowy past of one of the most hated companies in the world.