He knocked on her door and she let him in. He asked for a favor but she refused. He struck her and she crumpled. Within minutes it was over, a murder that catapulted Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, into the national spotlight. The small town was unaccustomed to violent crime, or the media circus that followed. Justice was swift—the killer was captured, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison, all within twenty days. Still, mysteries surrounding the murder persist even today.

Furnace Murder is a true story that unfolds through the eyes of fourteen-year-old Harvey Rowe, son of the local sheriff, who lived in the family's quarters at the county jail. Readers will be treated to an insider's view of small-town life, and crime, as only an impressionable adolescent sees it. The book also probes the tragic life of the victim during the decades leading up to her brutal end in 1948. It is a tale of wealth and prominence, and the curse of death.