AnnaLise's philandering father's attempt to 'do right' by his many heirs goes deadly wrong

Journalist AnnaLise Griggs' return to her hometown in North Carolina's western mountains has led to some unexpected surprises - most notably the discovery that legendary womanizer Dickens Hart is her birth father, and she an heir to Hart's huge fortune.

Founder of the White Tail Lodge - a High Country knock-off of the Playboy concept - Hart now claims he wants to 'do right' by any other children he may have fathered. To that end, he's invited all his former lovers and potential heirs, including AnnaLise and her own mother, Daisy, to what Hart envisions as a festive Thanksgiving weekend at the sprawling lakeside mansion.

But not everybody is in a celebratory mood, and when a body is discovered dead in the bed, AnnaLise is left with the impossible task of identifying the killer.

Comparisons to Margaret Maron's Deborah Knott mysteries and Mary Daheim's Alpine series are obvious and apt, and fans of those authors should find this new series from the author of the longer-running Maggy Thorsen series very much to their liking * Booklist *