A Manhattan couple find moving into their recently purchased Vermont home just a tad more complicated than they expected.
Stella and Nick Buckley are making big changes in their lives to accommodate Nick’s dream of following a career with the Forest Service. Arriving at their circa-1890 farmhouse with all their possessions, they plan on a romantic night before they get down to the business of moving in. But things go differently. First they are disturbed by a neighbor bearing cupcakes, then by the discovery of a body in their well. The dead man is Allen Weston, whose contract to fix the well didn’t include any such hands-on services. Weston had the reputation of being a sharp businessman who boasted many enemies. Local sheriff Charlie Mills forces Nick and Stella to leave the premises, since they’re now a crime scene. But an old friend of his, local bakery owner Alma Deville, who knows that the whole area is overrun with leaf peepers who have booked every available room, offers them the use of a sparsely furnished hunting camp. Stella, acutely aware of her disadvantaged status as a flatlander and newcomer, is convinced that solving the case will be the quickest way to get them into their new home. A second murder adds urgency to their sleuthing.
The first in a new series for Meade (Black Moonlight, 2010, etc.) features yet another set of bright young detectives along with some unlikely scenarios.
