Beyond Her Reach

The novel follows Sheriff Bree Taggert of Grey's Hollow in upstate New York.

On a snowy December morning, Bree responds to a probable homicide on Oak Street. A tile contractor found the homeowner's door unlocked and discovered a body. The victim, Kelly Gibson, age 45, has a deep slash wound to the throat. Cash and credit cards remain in her purse, ruling out robbery. No footprints disturb the overnight snow, meaning the killer arrived before snowfall or left early enough for tracks to be covered.

Jeff Burke, a large, aggressive neighbor, storms the driveway demanding answers and clips Bree in the jaw. She takes him down and handcuffs him but does not arrest him. Burke reveals Kelly and her husband Harrison Gibson are fighting over a contentious divorce. He witnessed Harrison arguing furiously with Kelly about the settlement and saw an unknown well-dressed man bring Kelly home one evening.

Bree's part-time investigator and live-in partner, Matt Flynn, arrives at the scene. Dr. Serena Jones, the medical examiner, estimates the time of death between noon and six p.m. on Monday and identifies exsanguination as the cause. Broken nails and fabric under one fingernail suggest a sudden attack from behind. Bree and Matt reconstruct the scene: The killer likely grabbed a weapon from a tool bag in the kitchen and slashed Kelly's throat while she sat on the couch. The unlocked door and lack of defensive wounds suggest she knew her attacker.

Bree and Matt visit Elaine Gibson's chicken farm, where Elaine's son Harrison has been living since the separation. Elaine is evasive about Harrison's Monday whereabouts. Harrison, 46, shows no reaction to news of Kelly's death and does not ask how she died. For his alibi, he says he took his girlfriend Marina Maxwell's sons to a trampoline park, leaving around 4:30 and departing Marina's house around six. He reveals Kelly was dating a man named Troy. Matt's social media research confirms Harrison lied about when his relationship with Marina began.

While visiting the library with her niece Kayla, Bree has a vivid childhood flashback of her late mother meeting an older woman over an open file in hushed, urgent conversation. Bree, whose abusive father killed her mother when Bree was a child, shares the memory with her brother Adam, an artist, who sketches the mystery woman. Bree gives the drawing to her administrative assistant Marge, speculating the woman was a social worker.

Kelly's phone reveals she connected with Troy Ryder through the dating app Date Smart. The day before the murder, Kelly made six unanswered calls to Troy and sent escalating texts ending with "How could you do this to me?" When Bree approaches Troy's home, a blue Porsche roars from the garage and crashes into a tree after a brief chase. The driver flees on foot. Inside the car, Matt finds a box cutter coated in what appears to be dried blood. The department's K-9, a German shepherd named Greta, tracks the scent to Blackbird Lake, where a kayak has gone missing.

Troy returns hours later in a different vehicle with a bandaged forehead. With defense attorney Morgan Dane present, he reveals Kelly told him she was pregnant during their Sunday call, which he says is impossible because he had a vasectomy 15 years earlier. He went to his lakeside cabin to process the news and denies driving the Porsche. Morgan challenges the evidence, noting Bree never saw the driver.

Bree interviews Kelly's best friend, Virginia Hobbs, who describes Harrison as emotionally abusive and controlling. Virginia reveals that Harrison confronted Kelly in a parking lot the previous Tuesday, captured on surveillance video, directly contradicting his claim that he last saw Kelly weeks earlier. Marina Maxwell, Harrison's 30-year-old girlfriend, confirms his alibi but avoids eye contact on specific times, and Bree suspects she was coached.

The autopsy confirms Kelly was not pregnant. Trampoline park footage reveals Harrison left at 3:32 p.m., a full hour earlier than he claimed. Morgan and her husband, private investigator Lance Kruger, canvass Kelly's neighborhood on Troy's behalf. A walker places Harrison at Kelly's door between 4:06 and 4:55 p.m. on Monday, and Morgan locates a jogger who corroborates Troy's presence at the lake around noon. Confronted with the evidence, Harrison admits visiting Kelly's house but insists she did not answer. Bree lacks sufficient physical evidence to arrest him.

A second murder shatters the case. Janet Hargrave, a freelance technical writer who also dated Troy, is found with her throat slashed in the same manner. DNA confirms the blood on the box cutter matches Kelly, but Troy's alibi for Janet's murder is verified by his house cleaner. Bree is then targeted directly: A cinder block dropped from an overpass shatters her windshield, and a hidden spike strip sends her SUV into a ditch. Turbo, a Belgian Malinois from Matt's sister Cady's canine rescue, leaps through the broken window and chases off someone approaching the wreck.

With Troy's alibi holding, Bree identifies other women he dated through Date Smart. Someone attempts to break into Barbara James's home, and Claudia Ferguson, a pediatric nurse, vanishes from her garage, where Bree finds blood spots and white fibers. Bree theorizes Harrison and Marina may have collaborated: Harrison killing Kelly for a $500,000 life insurance payout while Marina killed Janet during Harrison's station interview to provide an ironclad alibi. However, a tip line caller identifies Elaine Gibson as a woman she saw entering Kelly's house around 3:45 p.m. Monday. Forensic analysis reveals the white fibers are alpaca wool matching animals on Elaine's farm.

Bree leads a nighttime raid on the Gibson farm. The property is rigged with booby traps: Chief Deputy Todd Harvey falls through sawed-through basement stairs and loses consciousness. Elaine emerges with a shotgun, and Marina fires from the shadows, sparking a chase through the woods. Greta latches onto Elaine while Deputy Zucco shoots Marina in the arm. Both women are handcuffed, but Elaine slashes her own throat with a hidden knife, declaring Bree will never find Claudia. Bree presses a scarf against the wound, refusing to let her die. K-9 deputy Collins then guides Greta back through the farm. The dog tracks Claudia's scent to a root cellar beneath a tractor, where Claudia is found bound and blindfolded but alive.

From her hospital bed, Elaine confesses. She killed Kelly to free Harrison from the mortgage, enable him to collect the life insurance, and build a life with Marina. She and Marina surveilled Troy, learned his garage code, stole his Porsche, and planted the bloody box cutter to frame him. She killed Janet to give Harrison an unbreakable alibi and kidnapped Claudia when police kept investigating her son. She insists Harrison knew nothing.

With the case resolved, Bree meets Phyllis Sanders, the retired social worker Marge identified from Adam's sketch. Phyllis confirms she helped Bree's mother plan an escape from her abusive husband, but a shelter spot could not be found before he killed her. Adam announces plans to open the Mary Taggert Women's Shelter in their mother's honor. Troy Ryder is cleared of all charges. Bree leverages Greta's heroics to secure funding for Turbo to attend the K-9 academy. That night, Bree proposes to Matt, and he accepts.