Focus

A Vasily Korsokovach Mystery

A featured selection at the 2024 Tucson Festival of Books

Distracted by guilt over the serious injuries his best friend sustained while assisting with a case, Vasily Korsokovach doesn’t think much of the envelope that appears in his mailbox at the Rancho Linda Police Department. Containing a bunch of retro Polaroid snapshots showing a series of ordinary objects in everyday situations, the Deputy Chief finds himself at a loss as to why anyone would send him such random photos; whatever hidden message the sender was hoping to pass along is a mystery that Vasily is unwilling to delve into. At least, not until Sean Colbeth is back on his feet — and back on a plane to Windeport, Maine.

Stretched thin and emotionally exhausted, it takes the discovery of a body behind the last remaining bowling alley in the city for Vasily to realize just what sort of collection he’s been given. For while it would be a strange coincidence the corpse just happens to be wearing a pair of shoes featured prominently in one of the Polaroid shots, Vas begins to suspect something far more sinister after additional victims appear within days, each paired with item from a photo. As the clues begin to come into focus, the chilling reason Vasily has been singled out for attention raises the stakes and plunges those he cares the most about into extreme peril.

Drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse with a cunning killer who appears to have a particularly unusual method for selecting victims, Vas struggles to understand the peculiar roadmap contained within the fading pictures before the next victim arrives in the morgue.