Nothing as it Seems “A Novel of Suspense”

When a young, popular nurse is found dead in her home, the autopsy returns unclear results for the cause of death. Chief Jim Prescott, the new head of police in Chandler, Massachusetts, can’t shake the feeling that Megan Gallagher’s death was the result of foul play. After working with the county coroner and taking the investigation as far as his limited resources will allow, Chief Prescott reaches out for assistance with the case. When he learns that the FBI has a special program that helps small town law enforcement officers, he connects with Agent Craig Walker.

Walker agrees to take on the nurse’s case and brings in a detective from a nearby town, Dave Munoz, to work the case with him. The initial efforts of Walker, Munoz, and Prescott are mostly unfruitful. Although the circumstances of Megan’s death appear suspicious, there is no physical evidence that the nurse was murdered. One day as the trio are brainstorming over the facts of the case, Chief Prescott receives a call from the local coroner who has been in touch with the coroner serving another county. A woman has been found dead in her home. And while he did not identify the drug that led to the woman’s death, the coroner in the new case reveals that there is evidence that the woman had been injected with something before she died.

Walker and Munoz move the investigation to Kendall, Massachusetts and work with a local detective, Brian Evanston. As they learn about the second victim and question members of her family, a third woman is attacked in her home. But this time the perpetrator leaves before completing the injection. The victim falls into a coma but she remains alive. With the assistance of a retired FBI computer whiz and several cycles of interviews at the nursing home where the nurse worked and the hospital where the second victim had ties, Walker and Munoz identify a surprising suspect with an unlikely motive.