The Five
Cassidy “CC” Chambers moved to Myrtle, Massachusetts, to escape a dangerous past and build a quiet life as a middle-school teacher. For six months, she has kept to herself, finding safety in routine, anonymity, and the modest home she has worked so hard to restore. But during an evening walk along an old rail trail, CC discovers a naked body lying in a wooded ravine—and realizes the dead man may be connected to Myrtle’s darkest secret. Ten years earlier, five members of the town’s cross-country team vanished without a trace. Their families were left with rumors, unanswered questions, and no bodies to bury. Now one of the missing boys has returned to Myrtle in death, reviving old grief and threatening to expose secrets the town has worked hard to conceal. As CC struggles to recover from the trauma of finding the body, she is drawn into the investigation by an instinct for justice she believed her past had buried. Chief Fenric “Rick” Adler, a guarded but compassionate lawman, recognizes that CC is more complicated—and more vulnerable—than she appears. Together, they face a community full of suspicion, gossip, and buried resentment, where everyone seems to know something, and no one is willing to tell the whole truth. A cryptic warning from a troubled school janitor points toward an inappropriate relationship between one of the missing boys and a teacher who still works at the school. Meanwhile, CC’s own history begins pressing against the life she has created, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish old fear from present danger. Someone wants the past to remain buried—and will do whatever it takes to keep Myrtle’s secrets safe.
When one of the Five is found, the town’s silence begins to fracture. To uncover what happened to the boys, CC must risk the security she came to Myrtle to protect, confront the trauma she has spent years suppressing, and decide whether the truth is worth the price it demands.