At the age of ten, Scarlett Whitetower’s father, a paleontologist and well-respected university professor, invited her on a day-long outing to hunt for fossils at Lake Texoma. For Scarlett, it turned into the worst day of her young life. While Scarlett wandered off for a few minutes to explore, her father was mysteriously stabbed to death. It seemed like a senseless crime because the doctor seemed to be liked by everyone. His untimely death completely changed the direction of Scarlett’s life, plunging her into a hellish childhood at the hands of her domineering Aunt Maribeth. The older woman imposed senselessly strict restrictions and subjected Scarlett to unforgivingly harsh abuse. Only a girl with Scarlett’s fortitude could have survived her ordeal and come out of it with a sane mind. Even so, the passage of time has left her with psychological scars. For example, she recognizes that she had become withdrawn and afraid of crowds. She also realizes that life, in many ways, has gone off and left her behind. Scarlett compares her situation to a broken flowerpot with large pieces missing.

Now, more than eighteen years later after the sudden and unexpected death of her aunt, Scarlett has finally taken control of her own destiny. As her first act of independence, she has called in the Blakely Detective Agency to see if they can discover who killed her father. Carter Blakely, head of the agency, has handed the assignment to a young private investigator, Fitzgerald Vaughn. At first, Fitz doesn’t have much hope of ever solving such an icy-cold case … until he discovers an inconsistency of Scarlett’s new life that remarkably seems to link to her father’s past.

As dusty old clues merge with unexplained recent events, they lead Fitz and Scarlett on a dangerous hunt for an elusive truth that reaches back 1200 years. Their lives might be drastically transformed as a result - provided the experience doesn’t kill them first.

Shards of Time is a journey into a realm of deceit, mystery, repressed romance, and murder. John M. Moody’s unique story has merged an emotion-filled present with the distant past. The deadly trail they follow leads onward … but not always forward. This book offers fans of Moody’s previous stories, Into the Center of the Shadow and Land on the Verge of Darkness, with still another tale that will surely become a favorite.