A relic of Manhattan's Gilded Age, when Edith Wharton and Henry James chronicled its inhabitants, the Erich Bruel House on Gramercy Park contained three floors of glorious art-and one Christmas corpse. While the mansion was being decorated with antique ornaments, and preparations were being made for a lavish holiday party, someone killed the obnoxious art historian Dr. Roger Shambley.

Lieutenant Sigrid Harald of the New York Police Department comes up with a long list of suspects, and must sort through all sorts of motives, including academic rivalry, infidelity, art fraud, and good old-fashioned spite. Unless Sigrid can wrap up this homicide before the killer strikes again, her romantic white Christmas is going to be splashed with crimson. -The News and Observer, Raleigh