It’s been 20 years since Cody Swift’s best friends, Charlie Paige and Scott Ashby, were murdered. They were just 11 years old. Cody also would have been with them that evening, but his mother stopped him from going because he’d torn his new shirt. So Charlie and Scott went off without him. The killer, a mentally challenged resident of Bristol named Sidney Noyce, was quickly nabbed, convicted and sent off to prison where he died. But Cody has doubts about Sidney’s guilt. Now a filmmaker, he has begun a podcast called “It’s Time to Tell” in an effort to find out the truth of what actually happened.

Bristol detective John Fletcher has a big stake in the case, too. He was the one who found the boys the morning after they went missing. It was too late for Scott, but Charlie was still alive. Not for long, though. The lad died in Fletcher’s arms, wrenching the detective’s heart out and leaving him with a feeling he can never forget. So when the body of a man is discovered in the general area where the boys died, Fletcher wants top billing. He and his partner Danny worked the double murders two decades back, and they’ll work this one now. The case will unearth more than another body, though. Far more. It will unearth secrets that were probably better left buried.

"Gilly Macmillan has a superb talent for penning a lightning-fast story with twists all over the place. Once begun, you’ll never put it down."

Charlie’s mom, Jessica, hates to see the memories dredged up. Not only are they painful, they also bring back the guilt. Jess lived life on the edge. She knows what people said about her back then and can’t really blame them. But she was just a kid herself when she had Charlie. Partying was in her blood. That night, though, she should have done things differently. She wishes she had. The cops are aware that Jess can’t account for over an hour of her time the night the boys were killed, and they want to know where she was. Jess, though, doesn’t plan on telling them. She had help in getting away from a bad situation then, and she just wants to forget it even happened. Charlie is gone, long gone, and Jess has a loving husband and beautiful daughter these days. Let the past remain the past.

Only Cody has no intention of allowing that. When he began “It’s Time to Tell,” he fully proposed to get those involved talking and ultimately prove that the wrong person went to prison. Can he do it, or will someone stop him? He’s playing with fire. If another body hadn’t surfaced, maybe everyone could have moved on without looking back. But it did, and the gears of justice have been set in motion. Some people will tell. Some will triumph, and some will fall. Will they all survive? Find out.

Gilly Macmillan has a superb talent for penning a lightning-fast story with twists all over the place. Once begun, you’ll never put it down. Momentum builds with each chapter and each podcast that Cody presents. And the characters themselves are irresistible. You may start out loving one and end up thoroughly disgusted with him or her by the end, or the other way around. Just don’t think you have anything figured out. Until you do.