National Network for Equitable Library Service

Stella Crown works hard and loves her life. She runs her own Pennsylvania dairy farm with the trusted help of longtime farmhand Howie who stuck with her after her parents died, rides her Harley on the weekends, and has just enough friends to suit her fiercely independent nature. But on her 29th birthday, things start to change. A local child dies from a strange and threatening illness, a string of mysterious disasters place Stella and her farm in peril, and her childhood friend Abe shows up with a new woman on his arm, creating a storm of confusing emotions all around. To this charged atmosphere add elecrical outages, flooded barns, and cows running loose in the countryside. It seems like bad luck run amok, but when her livestock begins turning up dead, Stella knows that something, or someone, is out to get her. Meanwhile, though doctors announce they’ve identified the cause of the illness running through the community, another child is stricken before they can can declare victory, sending everyone into a state of near panic. While trying to solve the puzzle behind her own troubles, Stella begins to think that she alone might hold the answers to the horrifying medical mystery. Striking out on her own, afraid to trust anyone—friends, neighbors, or the gorgeous barn painter she’s fallen for—Stella goes after her enemy, determined to protect everything, and everyone, she loves.