Santa Clawed (Mrs. Murphy Mysteries, 17)

As Harry well knows, there's hardly a place on earth cozier than Crozet, Virginia, at Christmastime. Snowflakes, carolers, it's all picture-perfect until Harry and her husband, Fair, find the tree they've chosen grimly decorated with a corpse. The tree farm is run by the Brothers of Love, a semimonastic organization whose members live atop the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains. Now, as the season grows merrier, a murderer is growing bolder. One by one, prominent men of Crozet are being crossed off Christmas shopping lists and added to the morgue. And if Harry and her four-legged helpers aren't very good-and very careful-this Christmas will be her last.