"It's Christmas in the small town of Tinker's Cove, Maine, and Lucy Stone - newspaper reporter and mother of three - is excited about her acting debut in the town's production of A Christmas Carol.

Lucy normally loves planning for the holidays, but this year Tinker's Cove has fallen on hard times. With so many residents struggling to make ends meet, Christmas festivities are a luxury some can't afford. But the story's not so bleak at Downeast Mortgage, whose tight-fisted owners, Jake Marlowe and Ben Scribner, are raking in profits from everyone's misfortune. Half the town is in their debt, so when the miserly Marlowe is murdered, the mourners are few and the suspects are many . . .

Can Lucy find the murderer amidst the yuletide chaos? She's going to have to move fast, as there are death threats flying about, not tom mention a ghostly visitor . . .

Bursting with festive spirit, and as comforting as a roaring log fire, this wonderfully fun and cozy mystery from New York Times bestseller Leslie Meier is a delight from start to finish.