In HEARTS OF SAND, Alwych, Connecticut, is the stereotypical old money beach town --- the best families live in mini-mansions on Beach Drive, their children go to Alwych Country Day School, and the parents have memberships to the Atlantic Club. And Chapin Waring is the worst thing that ever happened to this town. She was a well turned-out debutante from one of the richest families in Alwych until 30 years ago when Chapin, destined to attend the right school, marry the right man, and have the right life, was revealed to be a bank robber and a murderer. She disappeared, never to be heard from again.

But Alwych has never forgotten her, or let her friends and family forget. So when, after a day of being spotted around town, Chapin turns up dead --- stabbed to death in her family’s old home --- it’s baffling. To learn why she died --- and to end the rampant speculation and media coverage --- Gregor Demarkian, retired profiler for the FBI, is brought in to finally solve the mysteries surrounding Chapin Waring. Not just how and why she died where she did, but where she’d been and what happened that night 30 years ago that set everything in motion.