While building his career as a private investigator in the Maine countryside, Ryan Tapia takes the case of Dr. Ed Healey, a local physician suffering from an acute case of cobalt poisoning. A mine has recently opened in Pushaw county, extracting the valuable minerals needed for batteries in electronic devices and electric cars. But a deadly "Fan" of poison is seeping out . . .

But there are dark legacies in Pushaw that go back to the Salem witch trials and the community on nearby Witch Island, where the Thornfoot family is turning the tables and exploiting the vagaries of modern life for their own ends.

On the cusp of finding his personal happiness once more, Tapia is caught in the middle of this vortex of manipulation and money, desperation and deceit. Neighbors turn on one another and the people of Pushaw risk becoming as deadly to one another as the industrial poison simmering beneath the surface.

In Big Money, Small Town, Thomas Ricks has crafted a nuanced and enthralling novel that challenges our understandings of money and influence in every facet of modern life.