"Several miles into his journey, Jack St. Bride decided to give up his former life." Prologue, March 2000, North Haverhill, New Hampshire, pg. 1.

"In his blue uniform, his badge glinting like a third eye, Wes Courtemanche was handsome enough to make women in Salem Falls dream about committing crimes. Addie, however, took one look at him and thought—not for the first time—that some men ought to come with an expiration date." Ch. 1, March 2000, Salem Falls, New Hampshire, pg. 7.

"As a child, she had believed that breathing in the diner had rooted it in her system, making it as much as part of her as her blood or her bones. Her father had been like that, too, once. But it had been seven years since he'd voluntarily set foot behind the stove. She wondered if it caused him some phantom pain that came from losing a...