Below the Landscape

Summary

A tragic accident, a missing fiancé . . . and a buried truth that refuses to stay hidden.

When a high school band trip ends in tragedy, Sue Jaworski steps in to comfort her friend and fellow garden club member, Ruth, whose nephew was among the victims. But while visiting Ruth's home, something unusual catches Sue's attention: a set of oil paintings identical to ones she recently bought at Trinkets and Treasures. The artist? Ruth's fiancé, who vanished without a trace forty years ago.

Intrigued, Sue shares the discovery with her granddaughter Jessica, who insists on showing her the actual landscape that inspired the artwork. But the picturesque setting hides a dangerous secret—it rests atop an unstable, long-abandoned coal mine.

As Sue and her husband Alan, Aspen Notch's police chief, dig into the past, they uncover a decades-old cover-up involving the town's shady bylaws, a powerful mining company, and a silence bought at great cost. Then Jessica goes missing . . . and Sue realizes some secrets were never meant to stay buried.