DEATH IN THE SHADOWS

Vivian Joyce, a vintage vendor in her 30s, visits the home of Simon Crowley, a middle-aged collector of 1950s TV lamps. He displays them on shelves in his basement and lights them from behind via wall switches. Viv buys a few of the lamps for her own 1930-50s themed booth. That evening she has dinner with her boyfriend Ed, an actor with the local repertory theater, and his stepmother Trish, a real estate agent. Trish remembers that she went to high school with Simon—he was shy, homely and often bullied for his artistic interests. Soon after, Viv’s reporter sister Mona tells her there was an attempted break-in at Simon’s house, and a young man’s beaten body was found farther down the street. The dead man’s fingertips also were singed, and though the police discovered that Crowley had wired his basement window to deter break-ins, they can’t connect the death to him in any other way.

Befriending Simon, Viv learns about an ugly conflict that dates back to the older man’s adolescence. With help from Ed and Mona, she begins to suspect that certain prominent local citizens may not be what they seem, and Simon may not be the only one scarred by a frightening episode from the past.