In Hampstead, Kansas, the joy of the holiday season is shattered with the discovery of a mutilated body, in Charlene Weir's A Cold Christmas.
Police Chief Susan Wren has her hands full. It is the coldest December the town has seen in years, a number of her officers are sick, and the body of a furnace repairman is found in Caley James' basement. His face and hands have been badly burned in an effort to keep his identity a secret. As Susan looks for answers, she learns that the victim had a dark past he was trying to hide. Were his secrets worth killing him over? And how does Caley fit in?