Superstore chain PyeMart has its sights set on a Minnesota river town, but two groups want to stop it: local merchants and environmentalists. The protests don't seem to be slowing the project, though, until someone decides to take matters into his own hands. The first bomb goes off on the top floor of PyeMart's headquarters. The second explodes at the construction site itself. Who's behind the bombs, and how far will they go? It's Virgil Flowers's...

"In southeast Minnesota, down on the Mississippi, a school board meeting is coming to a close. The board chairman announces that the rest of the meeting will be closed, due to personnel issues. "Issues" is correct. The proposal up for a vote before them is whether a local reporter should die. And the vote is four to one in favor. Meanwhile, not far away, Virgil Flowers is doing a favor for a friend by looking into a dognapping, which seems to be turning...

"Virgil knows the town of Trippton, Minnesota, a little too well. A few years back, he investigated the corrupt -- and as it turned out, homicidal -- local school board, and now the town's back in view with more alarming news: A woman's been found dead, frozen in a block of ice. There's a possibility that it might be connected to a high school class of twenty years ago that has a mid-winter reunion coming up, and so, wrapping his coat a little tighter,...