New York Times-bestselling author Michael Koryta returns with a thrilling new standalone crime novel and a rugged new investigator, an FBI interrogation specialist.

'And that is how it happened. Can we stop now?'

Kimberly Crepeaux is a notorious jailhouse snitch and opioid addict whose petty crimes are well known to the locals in her rural Maine community. So when she confesses to her role in the brutal murders of Jackie Pelletier and Ian Kelly, the daughter of a prominent local family and her sweetheart, few believe her story.

Except FBI interrogation specialist Rob Barrett. He knows that Kimberly's story - a dope-fuelled hit and run followed by a violent stabbing - is how it happened. But one thing remains elusive: where are the bodies?

Barrett stakes his name and reputation on the truth of Kimberly's confession, only to have the bodies turn up two hundred miles from where she said they'd be, shot in the back and covered in a different suspect's DNA. The case is quickly closed and Barrett forcibly reassigned. But for Howard Pelletier, the tragedy of his daughter's murder cannot be so easily forgotten. And for Barrett, whose career may already be over, the chance to help a grieving father may be the only one he has left.

How It Happened is a frightening, tension-filled ride into the dark heart of rural America.