When a hunter assaults an animal-rights activist, sleuth J.W. Jackson finds himself embroiled in a particularly nasty case.

The arrivals of a handsome Hollywood director and an old enemy from the Massachusetts environmental agency spell trouble for J.W. Jackson, putting his marriage and his life in danger.

Meeting the mysterious Mahsimba, who is searching for two priceless artworks missing from his African homeland, J.W. Jackson is alarmed when his wife becomes infatuated with the stranger, whose search pits him against dangerous forces in the local art world.

A clash between golfers and cyclists stirs up tension on idyllic Martha's Vineyard. Ex-cop J.W. Jackson is buying a pound of shrimp when he's verbally and physically attacked by Yale professor Henry Highsmith, who takes exception to J.W.'s parking his SUV too close to Highsmith's bike. When the professor's wife, Abigail, is run off the road by an old SUV, rumor suggests J.W. is to blame. A round of golf with some friends reveals Highsmith's body buried...

J.W. Jackson, a year-round resident of Martha's Vineyard, looks forward to the peace and quiet of the winter season in the popular tourist area, but the calm he seeks is disturbed when long-ago pal Clay Stockton arrives looking for a place to hide out from trouble, and another friend, Bonzo, makes a frightening discovery that implicates him in murder.