Sugarplum Dead

Annie Darling's yuletide preparations have been put on hold because her mother-in-law, Laurel, has taken to chatting up ghosts in the local graveyard. Across Broward's Rock, onetime movie star Marguerite Dumaney Ladson has called together all of her kin and their exes for a gala celebration. Among the honored guests are Annie's father and Dr. Emory Swanson. Ladson has fallen for Swanson's new-age-pseudo-occult gobbledygook. Right after the announcement that she's leaving her fortune to the charlatan's Evermore Foundation, there's a murder. And the finger of suspicion seems to be pointing straight at Annie's recently arrived deadbeat father. Annie doesn't believe for a minute he's guilty. When a second murder occurs, Annie realizes she will need all the help her easy-going P.I. husband, Max, can offer.


From the Compact Disc edition.