When Bertram Telemann, a developmentally disabled man, goes missing from a local diner near Greenbury, the entire community of the small upstate New York town volunteers to search the surrounding woods in hopes of finding him. High functioning and independent, Bertram had been on a field trip with the staff and fellow residents of the Loving Care Home when he vanished. When no trace of the man is found, the disappearance quickly becomes an official missing persons case and is assigned to detectives Peter Decker and his partner Tyler McAdams. As their investigation deepens, the seasoned Decker becomes convinced that Bertram hadn't lost his way, but had left with someone he knew. Soon Decker discovers that Elsie Schulung, a recently fired nurse who had worked at the home, seemed to be especially interested in Bertram. But answers proves elusive when Elsie disappears and human blood is found in her kitchen. But the complications are only beginning.

When a developmentally disabled man goes missing from a local diner near Greenbury, the entire community of the small upstate New York town volunteers to search the surrounding woods. High functioning and independent, Bertram had been on a field trip with the staff and fellow residents of the Loving Care Home when he vanished. The case is assigned to detectives Peter Decker and his partner Tyler McAdams. Decker becomes convinced that Bertram had not lost his way, but had left with someone he knew. While combing the woods, searchers discover the remains of one of three young men who had vanished during a camping trip. Juggling a hot case and a cold case, Decker and McAdams begin to wonder if the woods will ever give up its dark secrets .-- adapted from back cover

"Peter Decker and his current partner, Tyler McAdams, believes that a developmentally disabled man who vanished while on an outing from his residential home, went off with someone he knew, even as the remains of other young men are unearthed in the forest. And for Decker, personal problems are adding pressure as well. After a ten-year absence, the biological mother of Decker's and Rina's foster son, Gabriel, has suddenly appeared in New York"-- Detectives Peter Decker and Tyler McAdams link two suspicious disappearances from an assisted living facility to the case of three missing campers, before the reappearance of a foster son's biological mother upends Decker's home life.