In Patrick F. McManus's comic mystery, a person who turns up missing
during an avalanche turns up murdered--and everyone is a suspect.
When the call comes in that Mike Wilson, the unlikable owner of West
Branch Lodge, has gone missing, Sheriff Tully is delighted. This is an
excellent opportunity for Tully, his tracker pal Dave, and his retired
sheriff father, Pap, to enjoy a few evenings of hot tubs and single-malt
scotch at the luxurious lodge while working the case. However, visions
of R & R vanish in a flash on the drive up, when Tully and Pap suddenly
realize an avalanche is thundering down the mountain, straight toward
them.
Tully manages to outrun the crush of snow, but the road behind is
blocked, and there's no telling for how long. Tully's stranded at the
lodge with a motley group of vacationers and locals: a sassy co-ed, a
group of rambunctious fraternity boys, a shadowy group of what looks
like ex-cons, the missing owner's wife, a suspiciously good-looking
bartender, and worst (or perhaps best) of all, Tully's old flame, who
shows up with her dogsled and naughty intentions.
Both vacationers and locals start to look like suspects when Tully
discovers startling evidence proving that the avalanche was no accident
of nature. But why would anybody want him dead? And then the missing
persons case turns into a murder case when Mike Wilson's body turns up
in the river a couple of days later. But who killed him, and how?
Furthermore, when another murder in Blight City is reported that week,
the only suspect who makes sense...is the dead guy, Mike Wilson. But how
could that have happened? It's up to Tully to figure it all out in this
comic romp through the wilds of Blight County, from bestselling author
Patrick McManus.
