Murder Among the Angels

Book excerpt: The search for a plastic surgeon draws Hollywood legend and amateur sleuth Charlotte Graham to upstate New York, where she discovers a utopian community’s darkest secrets Zion Hill is paradise in the Hudson River Valley. A religious utopia founded a century ago, it remains a peaceful oasis where residents worship, marry, live, and die in the name of their church. But when walking along the river, exploring the township’s quaint old cemetery, a local finds something that will shatter Zion Hill’s pious calm. On one of the headstones sits a human skull, staring with empty sockets at the rolling, muddy river. Murder has come to paradise. Hollywood legend Charlotte Graham is in Zion Hill on a reluctant search for a nip and tuck when the skull is discovered. The victim was an aspiring actress and another patient of Charlotte’s cosmetic surgeon, and she was not the only one to die. In this religious paradise, vanity may be the deadliest sin of all. Booklist has called Charlotte Graham “Miss Marple in furs and jewels.” Fans of Agatha Christie’s legendary female sleuth will find that Charlotte is just as clever, and will agree that Murder Among the Angels may be her most elegant adventure yet. Murder Among the Angels is the 7th book in the Charlotte Graham Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.