'Dead Close' finds Boone and Marianne Bell, who is four months along in her pregnancy, settled in their new office space outside downtown Albany. Representing the owner of a vintage clothing shop accused of murder, Clive Townsend seeks Boone's help investigating his client's background to determine any possible motive for the crime. In addition to assigning surveillance tasks to three of Boone's former snitches, Marianne undertakes a forensic audit of a small woodworking company whose founder suspects his partner of embezzlement. The further Boone digs into the shop owner's background, the worse things look for Clive's client. The only bright spot is meeting the shop owner's single employee, Pearl Jagoda, a young Polish immigrant who recently became a citizen. As he untangles the shop owner's background with Marianne's assistance, people who might be able to provide him with valuable information wind up dead. Marianne's audit of the woodworking company, and the CPA who appears to be part of the embezzlement scheme, takes on a sinister turn when her client, and his wife, die in a house fire later determined to be arson. As Boone comes close to cracking the case, he is stunned to realize just who the killer is. And Marianne, believing the worst is behind her on her own file, learns too late that the worst is yet to come.