Deeper Than the Dead (Vera Boyett Book 1)

Crime analyst and newly disgraced deputy police chief Vera Boyett rarely returns to her hometown, and she avoids the cave on her family's land. When the remains of her long-missing stepmother are discovered, Vera must confront a past that threatens everything she has built. Vera and her sister Eve shared a childhood that was good until it became tragic. They never connected with their stepmother, but they had each other, a baby half-sister, and a deep mutual devotion that led them to do something unthinkable. Set during a summer in small-town Tennessee—humid and suffocating with secrets—the investigation uncovers more than one body buried beneath the surface.