Part of Death on Demand, book 12
First published 2001
Christmas preparations at Annie Darling's Death on Demand bookstore get derailed when family chaos erupts on Broward's Rock. Her mother-in-law Laurel has started talking to ghosts in the cemetery. Meanwhile, elderly movie star Marguerite Dumaney Ladson throws a Christmas birthday party at her mansion, gathering relatives and ex-spouses for a shocking announcement. She plans to leave her fortune to Dr. Emory Swanson's Evermore Foundation, much to her family's horror. The gathering includes two people Annie dreads seeing: her deadbeat father who abandoned her twenty-five years ago, and Swanson himself, the charlatan who has enchanted both Laurel and the wealthy hostess with new age nonsense. When murder follows the inheritance bombshell, suspicion falls on Annie's father. Though she feels no love for the man who left her, Annie refuses to believe he committed murder. A second killing complicates everything further. Annie must work with her husband Max to solve both crimes while wrestling with her complicated feelings about family loyalty and forgiveness during the season of giving.
Genres: suspense, mystery, cozy-mystery, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-drama, found-family, second-chance
Setting: Broward's Rock, Death on Demand Bookstore
Period: Christmas
416 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Avon