At 6 a.m. on Feb. 1, 1988, in a wealthy suburb of Durham, N.C., 39-year-old Russell Stager is shot in the back of the head while asleep in his home. His wife, Barbara, is mumbling incoherently on the edge of the bed when the police and EMTs arrive. Barbara tells police she thought she heard an intruder. Frightened, she'd reached for the gun her husband kept under his pillow, and somehow, it fired. The police write up the report as an accidental shooting, but when Russell's high-school sweetheart and first wife, Jo Lynn Snow, learns of the shooting, she suspects foul play. Jo Lynn tells the investigating detective that Barbara Stager's first husband died the same way, from an "accidental" gunshot wound. But is a "hunch" by a friendly first wife enough to change the course of the police investigation? What will Jo Lynn have to do to prove her suspicions? And will the death of Russell Stager be considered more than a tragic accident?

• Quint Gabriel