Manuscript Mayhem

A locked office. An open window. Three hundred forty-two missing pages.

Professor Olivia Little was one hour into summer break when her colleague came looking for her, shaking, holding nothing at all. William Thompson has spent forty years writing a book he has never let a single person read. This morning it was gone from his desk, and everything else in the room sat exactly where he left it.

That is the part that bothers Olivia. A thief in a hurry makes a mess. This one made a point.

With her best friend Polly along for moral support and iced coffee, Olivia starts asking the kind of polite questions that make people at a small university very nervous. A neighbor with a forty year grudge. A half smoked cigar nobody wants to claim. A girl in a yellow tank top who bolts the second she is seen.

Everyone has a reason for what they did. Not everyone has a good one.