Appealing young Emmy Brace is a feisty researcher for a large television news department in NY city. Summarily ordered to dance attendance on her guardian/uncle, retired Judge Harry Doane (sometimes known to his colleagues during the days of his active professional life as Handsome Harry), Emmy reluctantly drives up to his elegant suburban condo on a cold winter weekend in December. She has mixed feelings about visiting the domineering judge and his beguiling young wife China, who had qualified as Emmy's best friend during their school days and shared adolescent adventures.
Emmy's temper does not improve when she arrives at the Alpine Village condo and discovers that the Judge has been covertly interfering in her career and is adamant that she give it up. Emmy is place in an embarrassing position of having to accept hospitality from a former admirer, Bar Slocumb, when her older sister Kat's guest room, where Emmy had expected to stay, turns out to be overflowing with a litter of puppies. Things do not get better when two strange murders occur at Alpine Village, and these deaths are followed by a rash of baffling, ominous incidents that raise a number of disturbing questions: Is there a connection between the killings and the news story Emmy is researching, as the judge insists? .... Caught in the crossfire of mysterious events and conflicting emotions, Emmy fights for her life, and with the help of a rediscovered old love and the indefatigable Hubie, searches for clues to unmask a killer and a villian.
Emmy's temper does not improve when she arrives at the Alpine Village condo and discovers that the Judge has been covertly interfering in her career and is adamant that she give it up. Emmy is place in an embarrassing position of having to accept hospitality from a former admirer, Bar Slocumb, when her older sister Kat's guest room, where Emmy had expected to stay, turns out to be overflowing with a litter of puppies. Things do not get better when two strange murders occur at Alpine Village, and these deaths are followed by a rash of baffling, ominous incidents that raise a number of disturbing questions: Is there a connection between the killings and the news story Emmy is researching, as the judge insists? .... Caught in the crossfire of mysterious events and conflicting emotions, Emmy fights for her life, and with the help of a rediscovered old love and the indefatigable Hubie, searches for clues to unmask a killer and a villian.
Great example of an Agatha Christie-like mystery. Small group of characters but who done it?
