by Margaret Maron

In this 10th mystery starring Deborah Knott, the judge visits a tourist town that's not as tranquil as it first appears. Judge Deborah Knott is having doubts about her recent engagement to Deputy Sheriff Dwight Bryant, and so she eagerly seizes the opportunity to travel five hours away to fill in for a vacationing judge in the charming North Carolina mountain town of Cedar Gap. But if Deborah was looking for a peaceful idyll in which to clear her head, she's doomed to disappointment. She's presiding over a murder trial almost as soon as she arrives; and the dead man, a respected doctor, won't be the last corpse to show up in Cedar Gap....