Christmas Cookies & Crime

Snow has settled over Maplewood, and Emily Harper is determined to give the pie shop its warmest Christmas yet. The ovens are full of holiday cookies for the Christmas Cookie Walk, Main Street glows with garlands, and the Winter Wishes donation drive should bring out the best in everyone. Then Graham Foster is found dead in the Town Hall records room.

A retired bank manager and longtime charity treasurer, Graham counted every donation twice and trusted almost no one’s arithmetic. Shortly before his death, he hinted that a disputed envelope was only the smallest problem in the Winter Wishes accounts. Now Lila’s initials appear on a questionable seal, June’s volunteer schedule leaves an awkward gap, and a respected committee chair is determined to keep Christmas moving at any cost.

The detail Emily cannot dismiss is the red holly cookie tin found with Graham. It plays Silent Night. The tin Emily handed him played O Christmas Tree. With Lila’s dry humor, Mrs. Collins’s sharp memory, and Tom Bennett’s careful questions close at hand, Emily follows a trail of switched tins, missing gift cards, and polished holiday stories through snowy Maplewood.