It was the greatest summer ever. Except for...murder.

This story is about Mashnee Island.

The story is fiction. The Island is real.

It is also about James A. Rocket. Everyone calls James, "Jimmyrocket." One name, without pause. Jimmyrocket is ten years old and lives in the small, rural town of Seekonk, Massachusetts with his sister Alison, three years his senior, and his parents, Sonny & Beverly. They live in a grand Victorian home, perhaps in need of some spot touch-up paint and replacement of a plank or two of rotting wood around the garage frame, but otherwise quaint, clean and well cared-for. His home is directly next door to a well-known Dairy Farm, the odors of which he's long grown accustomed to, the magnificent ice cream from which he consumes daily in great delight.

And although skinny and relatively modest of stature, his legs are strong and nimble, and he can run like the wind.

In fact, Jimmyrocket's the fastest kid in school.

That's good. He'll need to be.