Beware the blackbirds...
It's Halloween in Vermont, winter is coming, and five humans, two dogs,
and a cat are a crowd in Mercy Carr's small cabin. She needs more
room--and she knows just the place: Grackle Tree Farm, with thirty acres
of woods and wetlands and a Victorian manor to die for. They say it's
haunted by the ghosts of missing children and lost poets and a murderer
or two, but Mercy loves it anyway. Even when Elvis finds a dead body in
the library.
There's something about Grackle Tree Farm that people are willing to
kill for--and Mercy needs to figure out what before they move in. A
coded letter found on the victim points to a hidden treasure that may be
worth a fortune--if it's real. She and Captain Thrasher conduct a search
of the old place--and end up at the wrong end of a Glock. A masked man
shoots Thrasher, and she and Elvis must take him down before he murders
them all. Under fire, she and Elvis manage to run the guy off, but not
before they are wounded, leaving Thrasher fighting for his life in the
hospital, Mercy on crutches, and Elvis on the mend.
Now it's up to Mercy and Troy and the dogs to track down the masked
murderer in a county overflowing with leaf peepers, Halloween revelers,
and treasure hunters and bring him to justice before he strikes again
and the treasure is lost forever, along with the good name of Grackle
Tree Farm....
