Cory Goodwin and Lilah Darnell were rebels and comrades-in-arts at Mount Holyoke College. Now Cory's a Boston journalist and a discreet private sleuth, and Lilah's the trophy wife of wealthy science publisher Bruce Easton. The mystery is why Lilah, a talented sculptor leading a charmed life, is desperate for Cory to visit her waterfront Connecticut home. At the Eastons' posh Christmas party for A-list authors and staff, Cory spots a scoop. Harvard biologist Henry Howrigan is rumored to be involved in a brewing conflict--but with whom? Does Olive Chute hope to lure him away to run Chute Labs? Will rising star Jeff Abels edge him out? Is Jeff sleeping with Bruce's secretary? Is Bruce sleeping with Henry's editor, Melinda Doerr? Were any of them involved in the drowning last summer of Bruce's son? A blizzard strands the party overnight--including the drunk and uninvited Tony Cyr, Melinda's ex-husband and Bruce's ex-partner. When a string of nasty pranks turns fatal, it's up to Cory--daughter of NY detective Archie Goodwin, and the group's only outsider--to trap the killer.

Cape Cod! To Lydia Vivaldi, it looks like sanctuary - until she learns her one friend in Quansett is dead. How could a skilled carpenter fall off a ladder at a film shoot? When Lydia lands a cooking job at Leo's Back End and starts asking questions, she's stonewalled by the flirtatious filmmaker and resented by the police. Only Edgar Rowdey, famous author of creepy little books and a Leo's regular, shares Lydia's doubts about the "accident." Can this unlikely pair of detectives find out what really happened before it happens again?