The Assumption

Todd Atkinson has lived in his boyhood lake home since he was ten years old. He prefers his low-key, predictable lifestyle, aiming for safety and little risk at every turn-that is, until he becomes disillusioned with the direction of his life and business career as he approaches thirty. His growing disenchantment leads him to consider changes in employment and attitude, but his conservative outlook makes it difficult to take action.
Then things outside his control begin to happen, in particular a death at the lake where he lives. He barely survives the ordeal. The situation leaves Atkinson as the only witness to what authorities rule to be an accidental death. But Atkinson knows otherwise and is now in peril. If he offers his testimony, will he put himself in jeopardy? Though he believes he knows who committed the murder, fear keeps him from coming forward, and the guilt associated with his silence turns to an obsession with finding more evidence-anything to point the police toward the killer. In the process, he upends his comfortable, staid life, engaging in risky behavior and seeking out dangerous situations, soon transforming himself into someone he barely recognizes.
In this thriller, a cautious businessman is suddenly entangled in a spiral of death and danger as he confronts his own dissatisfaction with the direction of his life.

J. L. Larson, a graduate of the University of Minnesota, has worked in legal publishing and business consulting. He is the author of The Raid at Lake Minnewaska, The Disappearance of Henry Hanson, and The Choices of Adam Bailey, all part of his ongoing Minnesota Lake series. He is also the author of a short story collection, The Accident at Sanborn Corners ... and Other Minnesota Short Stories. He and his wife currently reside at Lake Norman in North Carolina.