A young man is drawn back to his hometown after his father's mysterious death.Two years after he ran away from the small industrial town of Hope and moved to the city, Will Homer, now 18, receives a phone call letting him know that his ex-cop father has turned up dead, his body found in a pile of sulfur, presumably a suicide. Will's own disappearance coincided with the death of the wealthy sulfur mill's chairman, Aaron Sullivan, who was rumored to have a secret-and now missing-stash of gold. Despite knowing he will face questions about Sullivan's death and the gold if he shows his face, Will is drawn back by the loss of his father as well as by memories of Eve, the love of his life and the girl he's never stopped thinking about. As he starts looking into his father's death, he discovers that there seems to be even more at stake. Fast-paced with an ominous tone, this mystery within a mystery makes every detail count. The development of character and setting are minimized in order to focus on the plot, and the carefully chosen vocabulary will make this work accessible to developing readers. Sex scenes and drug use are described briefly and in frank terms. Characters default to White.A twisty noir mystery that will keep even the most reluctant of readers on the edges of their seats. (Thriller. 14-18)