Seeking refuge from a relentless blizzard, a bird-watching group takes shelter in a high school—only to find that the deadliest threat is already inside.
"With homage to Agatha Christie... [an] engaging locked-room mystery." —First Clue
Kate Fox has her hands full when her sister Louise and her father’s latest ex-girlfriend, Deenie, show up at her doorstep just as a freak snowstorm comes bearing down. But when the sheriff—snowbound and stranded out of town—calls on Kate to assist a van of bird-watchers stuck along the road, she has no idea what she’s signed up for.
With the help of Deenie and Louise, Kate settles the stranded group in the local high school gym, hoping they can ride out the storm together. But as the blizzard howls and cell service dies, Kate and the eight quirky tourists find themselves utterly isolated. What began as a refuge quickly turns into a nightmare when, by dawn, one of the birders is found dead—murdered.
Trapped by the blizzard, Kate has to single-handedly preserve the crime scene and discreetly begin her investigation, all while keeping the ruffled birders calm. But she soon realizes that each of the bird-watchers has something to hide...and more than one of them had a reason to want the victim gone. Secrets run deep, and as the snow piles higher, so do the lies. With the murderer still among them and no chance of escape, Kate must untangle the deadly truths beneath the snow to avoid becoming prey to a killer in this flock.
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Praise for Shannon Baker:
"...terrific series..." —Catriona McPherson, multi-award-winning author of A Gingerbread House
"...Baker knocks the wind out of you..." —Carolyn Ridder Aspenson, USA Today bestselling author of Damaging Secrets
“Shannon Baker gets better with every book.” —Amazon Charts bestselling author Jess Lourey
"...winning characters and a stunning setting…" —Mystery Scene
"A wonderful western mystery not to be missed! Enjoy!" —Fresh Fiction
"...laugh-out-loud humor and heart-stopping suspense...” —Gwen Florio, author of the Nora Best and Julia Geary series
"Baker serves up a ballsy heroine, a colorful backdrop, and a surprising ending." —Kirkus Reviews
"...Baker offers readers a protagonist and a place they will love coming back to visit book after book." —William Kent Krueger, New York Times bestselling author
"...perfect blend of small-town atmosphere, intriguing plot-line, and down-to-earth characters affectionately called Sandhillers." —Christine Carbo, author of the bestselling Glacier Mystery Series
Shannon Baker is the award-winning author of The Desert Behind Me and the Kate Fox series, along with the Nora Abbott mysteries and the Michaela Sanchez Southwest Crime Thrillers. She is the proud recipient of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers 2014 and 2017-18 Writer of the Year Award. Baker spent 20 years in the Nebraska Sandhills, where cattle outnumber people by more than 50:1. She now lives on the edge of the desert in Tucson with her crazy Weimaraner and her favorite human. A lover of the great outdoors, she can be found backpacking, traipsing to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, skiing mountains and plains, kayaking lakes, river running, hiking, cycling, and scuba diving whenever she gets a chance. Arizona sunsets notwithstanding, Baker is, and always will be a Nebraska Husker. Go Big Red.
