Police Lieutenant Lane Walker is waiting at the District Attorney's home to learn if the DA's death is from natural causes or if he was murdered. As he waits, Tiffany Clayton, a star reporter with the Chicago Times, arrives at the DA's home for an appointment. Lane and Tiffany have a romantic history that ended badly and do not hold each other in very high esteem. When Lane gets the call that the DA was drugged then killed by blunt force trauma and stabbed with a red-handled knife after his death, he and Tiffany look for a possible murder weapon. According to the Medical Examiner, it is something round and painted red. Lane finds a tin of fruitcake in the basement that matches the red paint. However, he soon discovers this fruitcake is twenty years old. The company that made it went out of business in 1926.

Bret Garner, a WWII Marine buddy of Lane's turned private investigator, arrives on the scene through a turn of events. Together, the three amigos mull over the facts and try to track down a killer. Days later, another murder occurs with the same MO: drugged, hit in the head with a fruitcake, and then stabbed with a red-handled knife. Later, Lane investigates a third identical murder. But what do a murdered District Attorney, a retired homeless, alcoholic cop, and a retired gun store owner have in common? Can Lane, Tiffany and Bret work together to solve this case?

Ace Collins opens THE FRUITCAKE MURDERS with the killing of a grocery store owner in 1926. As Lane, Tiffany and Bret investigate the current three murders in 1946, they believe these deaths are tied to the earlier murder. THE FRUITCAKE MURDERS is a fast-paced and complex story. The characters are realistic yet somewhat quirky. Each pursues their own investigation in their own style, but they come together and share their findings in trying to solve this case. THE FRUITCAKE MURDERS may sound like a cozy mystery, but it is definitely not. With the investigation tying in a local Chicago crime boss and the mob, Lane, Tiffany and Bret run into some harrowing situations. Ace Collins brings us another masterfully written thriller that will have you riveted to the pages. As imaginative and comical as it may seem, fruitcakes are the perfect Christmas murder weapon. Our family has its own tale about fruitcakes at Christmas, so this one really hit home and made me chuckle.

Book Summary

As Christmas 1946 draws near, thirty-something marine officer-turned-homicide detective Lane Walker has his hands full. Three men with seemingly no relationship to each other have been murdered, including the powerful District Attorney. The only connection between the crimes? The weapons: twenty-year-old unopened fruitcake tins manufactured by a company that is no longer in business. While some foods may be to die for, fruitcake isn't one of them! This heaping helping of murder will be no easy task for Walker, and he certainly doesn't need the determined and feisty Betsy Clayton, the political reporter for The Chicago Herald, getting in the way. Employing witty dialogue and historical accuracy, The Fruitcake Murders offers equal parts murder, mystery, and mayhem in a perplexing whodunit set in the days just after World War II.