"Spencer Murphy is a national treasure: a famous war correspondent who escaped captivity in Southeast Asia, his books and television appearances have made him a fortune for half a century. But Spencer, a venerable member of the Wharf Rats--Nantucket's exclusive club for fishermen, storytellers, and characters--is growing forgetful with age. When Spence starts to wander and his half-Asian daughter disappears without a word, Nantucket police detective Meredith Folger is called in to investigate. The timing couldn't be worse: It's the Fourth of July, Merry's planning her wedding to cranberry farmer Peter Mason, and her new police chief is gunning for her job. When a body is discovered at Step Above, the sprawling Murphy house near Steps Beach, Merry is inclined to call it a tragic accident ... until another member of the Murphy clan comes to a brutal end. As Merry grapples with a family of unreliable storytellers--some incapable of recalling the past, and others determined that it never be known--she suspects that the truth may be forever out of reach, trapped in the failing brain of a man whose whole life turns out to be a lie"--