Quantum of Evidence

Returning from a sojourn in the Mediterranean, Friday Harbor P.I. Scotia MacKinnon takes on a notorious cold-case murder file: The State of Washington v. Hazel Gundersen.The Orcas Island horsewoman was accused, convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment for the alleged murder of her husband, the philandering Norwegian boat pilot, Capt. Peder Gundersen. All despite the fact that the prosecution was never able to establish that a murder had actually occurred. No body, no eyewitnesses.Scotia client is a candidate for County Council against newcomer Lochlan McCready, a former CIA operative who is dredging up the 30-year old murder conviction and leaving no skeleton unturned to win the election.Multitasking between surviving jurors, old court records, elusive Gundersen DNA, and her own family crisis, Scotia must also contend with the disappearance in the Indian Ocean of the peripatetic Capt. Harrison Petrovsky and his first mate, a Shanghai stock trader.