Brilliant, dedicated, and driven, archaeologist Emma Fielding is an expert at finding things that have been lost for centuries. A soon-to-be-tenured professor, she recently unearthed a major archeological discovery in coastal Maine: a seventeenth-century settlement that predates Jamestown. But a dead body found at the site has embroiled Emma and her students in a different kind of investigation.

As a disgruntled rival puts Emma's reputation in jeopardy, a second suspicious death hits heartbreakingly close to home. Now Emma is determined to bring a killer to light. But that means digging into some dark secrets buried deep within the archaeological community—a tricky business that could wind up burying her.