Back to the Garden

Crusoe Larkin is a private investigator in a place that doesn’t really seem to need one: Woodstock, New York. It’s an easygoing little town with a big and famous reputation, full of old hippies, young hipsters, Buddhists, tourists and folks who like to look up at mountains or look down from them. It’s a pretty view either way. Being underbusy suits Larkin just fine -- in fact, he doesn’t even have an office: the few potential clients who might need his services despite his wiseass attitude can generally find him slouched over the back table at the town bakery. It doesn’t afford much privacy, but they do serve a great lemon pound cake there. But when a desperate and determined older woman from the American heartland shows up and asks him to find her sister -- missing since the famous concert 50 years before -- this cold case heats up fast, a place where there hasn’t been a murder in decades is suddenly in need of a big-enough morgue, and a blizzard of lies and sins of the past rush up to meet Larkin head-on in a climax that takes him back to that rural farm where it all began. Only, at that time it was about peace and love. Or was supposed to be.