"Gus Salt never wanted to be sheriff of Harr County, North Carolina. He had planned to study with a famous writer at Harvard College and become a writer himself. Then Pearl Harbor happened, and Gus, deferred from service because of a lazy thyroid, was nearly the only able-bodied man available for law enforcement. Now, fifteen years later, a weary Gus is ready to retire. A new man is ready to take over, but first Gus must determine if the drowning of the local Episcopal minister was accidental and if Blossom Hall, a young woman in love with Gus, had anything to do with it. The past is about to catch up with everyone, Gus included"--