For thirty years, the corpse had been hidden in the fireplace of an old house.   

It's clearly murder, but who is the murdered person and what connection does the body have to the previous owners of the house? 

And then why a fireplace? It was bound to be discovered eventually but was that what the murderer wanted.  

The main suspects are all old and dying, or already dead.

Isaac Cook and his team have their work cut out trying to put the pieces together.

Those who know are not talking out of an old-fashioned belief in that a family’s dirty laundry is not to be aired in public, and certainly not to a policeman. 

Even if that means the murderer is never brought to justice.