Miss Marple meets the Shining
All recent widow Margie Thermopolis wants is to survive her last few years of governmental work, then retire with her four cats, an ample supply of IPA, and watch roller derby. She’s haunted—not by the promised but yet-to-happen visit of her dead husband—but by his medical debt and her discovery of his secret bonsai tree hobby. When she’s sent to inspect a boutique assisted living facility built on the ravaged site of Old Grove Lodge, she’s forced to face long buried secrets: for Old Grove Lake is the site of her little brother’s bizarre death fifty years earlier—for which she blames a mythical forest spirit, the tree witch.
At Old Grove, named for the cluster of centuries-old trees standing by the deep mountain lake, Margie must face not just her own suspect memories, but the owner, the manipulative, lumber baron, Hayden Wylend, and his dying mother intent on destroying the last of the old-growth trees. Trapped in the sparkling new assisted living facility by an early blizzard along with the Wylends, a flamboyant chef, a secretive caregiver, and a handful of high-paying residents, it’s not just Margie’s past that’s coming to the surface: with assistance from a pissed-off Mother Nature, something with a far older vendetta is about to awake.
Perfect for fans of Grady Hendrix, T. Kingfisher, and Carissa Orlando.
