Fatality by Firelight

Book excerpt: A day of skiing may lead to a life sentence for an aspiring writer in this Colorado writers’ retreat mystery by the New York Times–bestselling author. To kick off a winter writing retreat, Cat and her handyman boyfriend, Seth, escort the aspiring authors to a nearby ski resort, hoping some fresh air will get the creative juices flowing. But instead of hitting the slopes, they hit the bar—and before long, a tipsy romance novelist named Christina is keeping herself warm with a local ski bum who might have neglected to tell her about his upcoming wedding. The trouble starts when Cat’s uncle, the town sheriff, informs her that the young man’s been found dead in a hot tub. Then Christina shows up crying and covered in blood. Now, between a murder mystery, the theft of a rare Hemingway edition, and the arrival of a black-clad stranger in snowy Aspen Hills, Cat’s afraid everything’s going downhill.