Next Stop

APRIL SHOWERS BRING MAY MURDER! So should read the headline of bed & breakfast proprietress and master chef Claire Andersen's most recent newsletter. Because, on the cusp of the "merry month of May," Claire's feeling, well, not the merriest.

Sure, her beloved old renovated Victorian inn's nested snugly in the tops of the bucolic Appalachian Mountains, but an ice-turned-snow storm this time of year? You've gotta be kidding me… Or so would mutter her feisty gal pal Evelyn—who just so happens to be stuck in town and in need of a place to crash for said stormy night. As, by the way, do seven stranded tourists from a Pittsburgh-based venture dubbed "Appalachian Enchantment," plus their unassuming charter bus driver.

Ever the gracious hostess, Claire makes quick work of the emergency—made cozy by a crackling fire in the hearth, two pots of gourmet nosh, and a festive round of cocktails. But, come morning, eight guests have become seven … when one is discovered dead. Enchantment, indeed! That's when Claire's real work begins.

Because it becomes quickly apparent that she, Evelyn, and the seven remaining strangers (none of whom are what they seem)—not to mention her trusty canine sidekick Rupert—are snowed in with a real-life murderer. Claire finds she had no choice but to catch them quick—before the snow thaws enough for the murderer to spring free of their collective Appalachian Entrapment … or worse: kill anew!