Synopses & Reviews
Marla's a little nervous about her family reunion at Sarasota's historic Live Oaks Plantation. It's the first time her clan will meet her fiance, Detective Dalton Vail... and vice versa. One wing of the hotel is condemned and off-limits while the rest is packed with visitors this Thanksgiving weekend, from city council members debating the feasibility of a historical theme park on adjacent property to paranormal experts investigating the site's many ghosts. The web of tension connecting Marla's relatives adds a most unwelcome tint of anxiety to the whole affair. Elderly Aunt Polly, whose Russian father, Andrew Marks, once owned Live Oaks, is desperate to find the treasure in gemstones he hid there before the place is torn down. But when Aunt Polly is found suffocated in her bed, her nursing aide vanished, there's no excuse for silly speculations. it's time for Marla to unravel the tangle of lies that tie her family to Live Oaks. And while she's on the hunt, she might as well consider those with money to lose if the demolition is delayed--like local businessmen...and Cynthia's husband, who is anxious to invest in the theme park.
Synopsis
In Marla Shore's seventh outing as sleuth extraordinaire, she'll need all the snooping skills she can muster when a family reunion on a Florida plantation uncovers shadowy secrets and dead roots.