Sleeping Dogs

In Winterbourne, the past doesn't stay buried. Sometimes it waits ten years before claiming another victim.

Fourteen-year-old Danny Nesbitt has learned not to expect much from the world. Shuffled through foster homes after his parents' deaths, he trusts his scrappy, fiercely loyal dog Jack more than most people. Then Jack leads him into the tall grass of Millar's field—and to the body of Billy Anglin.

For Detective Floyd Guthrie, the discovery may be the break he's dreaded. Children have been murdered in Winterbourne at roughly ten-year intervals for decades. The wounds are disturbingly familiar. The files are old, the leads are thin, and the town has learned to live with rumours of something monstrous hiding in plain sight.

Floyd has been a steady presence in Danny's unsettled life. Now the boy and the detective are pulled toward the same terrible mystery, where whispered legends, buried secrets and the history of Winterbourne threaten to blur the line between human cruelty and something far stranger.

As the investigation reaches into the town's darkest corners, Danny must decide whom to trust—and Floyd must face a case that has haunted him for years. Whatever is taking Winterbourne's children has been patient. It may not be finished.

Sleeping Dogs is the fourth book in S. A. Baker's Winterbourne series: a chilling blend of small-town murder mystery, psychological suspense and horror, anchored by a boy, his dog and a detective who refuses to look away.