Rita Mae Brown and her feline co-author Sneaky Pie Brown return to Albemarle County, Virgina, as tangled mysteries past and present converge in the bestselling Mrs. Murphy series. "As feline collaborators go, you couldn't ask for better than Sneaky Pie Brown."--The New York Times Book Review With the New Year just around the corner, winter has transformed the cozy Blue Ridge Mountain community of Crozet, Virginia, into a living snow globe. It's the perfect setting for Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen to build a new work shed designed by her dear friend local architect Gary Gardner. But the natural serenity is shattered when out of the blue, right in front of Harry and Deputy Cynthia Cooper, and in broad daylight, Gary is shot to death by a masked motorcyclist. Outraged by the brazen murder, Harry begins to burrow into her friend's past--and unearths a pattern of destructive greed reaching far back into Virginia's post-Revolutionary history. When Harry finds incriminating evidence, the killer strikes again. Heedless of her own safety and survival, Harry follows a trail of clues to a construction site in Richmond, where the discovery of ancient remains has recently halted work. Aided as always by her loyal if opinionated companions--crime-solving cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and Tee Tucker the Corgi--Harry hunts for a link between the centuries-old dead and the recently, violently deceased. And while other deaths are narrowly averted in a flurry of fur and limbs, the killer remains at large--ever more desperate and dangerous. The deep-rooted legacy of corruption that's been exposed can never be buried again. But if Harry keeps pursuing the terrible truth, she may be digging her own grave.