The Trouble With Thin Ice (Simona Griffo Mysteries)

The Story

In this keenly plotted and atmospheric mystery, Simona Griffo - the New York ad exec and transplanted Italian who loves to cook and solve murders - finds herself skidding on ice as she attempts to help find a friend. Simona joins her lover, Stan Greenhouse, and his fourteen-year-old son, Willy, on a trip to Connecticut for the holidays, so that they can get to know each other better, and to attend the wedding of Greenhouse's old friend, Kesho. However, Willy quickly reveals that he'd rather not have Simona around. To make matters worse, Christmas Eve dinner turns sour when a conflict erupts over Kesho and her finance's plans to buy Rock-Perch, a local house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Though the current owner, Elisabeth Dobson, is anxious to sell, the rest of her family violently objects upon hearing the plan that night at the table. They are indignant not only because Kesho is black, but because her parents were once domestics in the Dobson household. Kesho, for her part, is outraged by their response. Unsettled by the dinner and frustrated by Willy's behaviour, Simona takes a midnight walk near a snowy lake and discovers a body. Elisabeth Dobson has been murdered, and Kesho is suspect number one. Over Greenhouse's objections, Simona uses her itchy nose and the fragile alliance she gradually builds with Willy to sniff out the killer. The happy result is justice, friendship, and a satisfying new recipe, a Simona Griffo mystery trademark.