"The week of The Reckoning has begun. And senior students have been tasked with making the freshmen's lives pure hell as we prepare to take the assessment that will decide whether we stay at Zodiac Academy or lose our places here forever. With the lunar eclipse on the horizon, my sister and I have more to worry about than just passing of our exams. A dark plot is unfolding and the shadows are drawing closer. It looks like our enemies could be closer than we ever realised"--Provided by publisher.

Pete Banning was Clanton's favorite son, a returning war hero, the patriarch of a prominent family, a farmer, father, neighbor, and a faithful member of the Methodist church. Then one cool October morning in 1946. he rose early, drove into town, walked into the church, and calmly shot and killed the Reverend Dexter Bell. As if the murder wasn't shocking enough, it was even more baffling that Pete's only statement about it - to the sheriff, to his defense attorney, to the judge, to his family and friends, and to the people of Clanton - was 'I have nothing to say'. And so the murder of the esteemed Reverend Bell became the most mysterious and unforgettable crime Ford County had ever known.