Back in the day, Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree turned profits managing the fortunes of Manhattan's most fortunate. Then she fled the rat race for a stately old fixer-upper in easygoing Eastport, Maine. But now a rat from an even darker corner of Jake's past has turned up...a killer with a blueprint for demolishing her new life.

As a home repair enthusiast, Jake knows that nothing lasts forever--not windows or doors, not plaster or plumbing. And not good fortune.

After more than three decades eluding justice, the man who murdered her mother is finally about to stand trial--until he vanishes into thin air. Jake has a terrible foreboding of where Ozzie Campbell will turn up next. And while the local police chief is sure she's overreacting, the truth is far worse than even Jake's worst fears.

With her normally full house empty for at least another week, Jake has been looking forward to the unaccustomed peace and quiet. Now her cozy, well-loved home feels more like a big empty death trap ready to snap shut. First a pair of out-of-towners clearly not in Eastport for vacation turn up asking questions about her. And if she has any doubt they're connected to Campbell, those doubts are erased when he calls her with a grim warning.

But exactly what Campbell wants from her isn't clear, only that he'll stop at nothing to hurt those closest to Jake. And his first victims are the most defenseless of all. Suddenly Jake can't help but feel that her house--and her life--has far too many windows. And in any one of them she might see the face of her killer.

From the Hardcover edition.