It was nobody's fault, unless you counted the mice, and even they didn't mean to start trouble. A forgotten candy cane lured them to the Christmas tree stored in the basement of St. Anne's Hospital. The nibbling and gnawing just went on from there. Now there are holes in the trunk where none should be and not a single branch will stay in place. Despite this disaster, the nurses of Psychiatric Ward One are determined to deck the blues by decking the halls. When an anonymous donor sends them an artificial balsam, they happily press their patients into decorating it. But lighting the new tree ends with a bang! Who planted the bomb that wrecks havoc in the little town of Rhineburg? A frustrated employee fired by St. Anne's despised administrator? A student terrorist from Bruck University? Or Caroline Rhodes, a nurse with a suspicious past who survived the explosion but refuses to discuss it? Tagged as a suspect by the FBI, Caroline must prove her innocence by unraveling a devilish plot devised to eliminate one man's nemesis. Aided by history professor Carl Atwater, Caroline cuts through a maze of conflicting stories, red herrings, and downright lies to bring a killer to justice.
Review
"Nice college town mystery with an intriguing plot and good characters." --The Baldwin Ledger
"Highly recommended?β¬Β¦ this one holds much promise." --Under the Covers Book Reviews
"The novel shines for its scenes evoking the warm and fuzzy comforts of the holiday season." --Chicago Sun Times
From the Author
I wrote the first draft of this mystery while still in school, then left it to molder away in a bottom drawer of my desk while I tended to more important things than writing -- like raisingΒ a family of six lively children. It was only after they were grown and managing well on their own that I found both the time and the encouragement (courtesy of my great husband) to tackle the massive job of rewriting and editing required to turn my youthful endeavor into an actual manuscript worthy of reading. A semi-finalist in the Hemingway First Novel contest under the working title FOUR TO GO, this firstΒ book in the "Rhodes to Murder" series first saw publication in 1998 as A DEADLY LITTLE CHRISTMAS. It won a Readers Choice Award for Best First Mystery in 1999. Out-of-print for several years, it was reissuedΒ in 2007 by Echelon Press as a revised second edition under a new title, A MERRY LITTLE MURDER.
I hope you enjoy this winter holiday mystery set in the rural university town of Rhineburg, Illinois and featuring ER nurse Caroline Rhodes and professor of history Carl Atwater.
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