A Branch Left Out: 3

Spring has barely reached Wrackline Harbor when a local accountant is found dead on the quarry path, leaving behind questions about an estate she had only begun to untangle.Pru Safford had discovered a debt she could not explain. Now Wrackline Harbor is shaken, a grieving family is under scrutiny, and Cassandra Mercer suspects the answer may be hidden in five old photographs left behind by a beloved schoolteacher.For forty years, Foster Vane labeled every face he photographed.Except one.The same young woman appears at the edge of five photographs spanning twelve years, and no one will say who she was.Cassandra spent thirty years defending financial-crime cases in Manhattan, testing stories against records and following money people hoped no one would trace.As she compares the unexplained debt with the old photographs, loyalties begin to fracture and a buried piece of family history comes into focus.Someone killed Pru to keep that secret buried. Cassandra intends to find out who. Perfect for readers of Louise Penny, Richard Osman, and Ann Cleeves.