As a renowned professor of criminal psychology, Tennessee Wilson knows the adage publish or perish only too well. Publish she must or risk the wrath of the Dean of Psychology and endure the possibility of not getting tenure. But it’s hard to write while teaching summer classes, so she convinces the Dean she must get away to the quiet countryside and escapes to the bucolic surroundings of rural Vermont. She’s enchanted by the small town, the friendly people and the beautiful hay loft apartment she’s rented in a local barn. It’s the rare professor that is fortunate enough to write their papers overlooking a field of wildflowers and adorable calves.
But a poison pen is terrorizing the locals and even Tennessee gets a nasty, if improbable, letter. It’s so far from the truth that she wonders why anyone would bother sending it at all. However when the poison pen hits too close to home and the doctor’s husband kills himself, things get serious, fast. The locals are getting worried – when will the poison pen strike too close to home again? Will more dirty laundry be aired in public? No one is looking forward to a message that they’d rather die than read.
When another death draws law enforcement into the drama, Tennessee’s expertise becomes invaluable to the state police whose budget doesn’t include money for specialists. So much for a quiet summer, Tennessee is embroiled in a daring plot of love and intrigue before she even has a chance to settle in. And then she meets the farmer’s handsome son, who doesn’t seem to care if the poison pen is true or not as long as he can tag along with Tennessee.
Life is complicated enough without a second poison pen, but it seems to Tennessee that there must me more than one, otherwise how do you explain the odd letter written to the young medical intern at the doctor’s office. For one thing, the grammar! For another, it’s spot on! Is someone using the poison pen MO to send a message? Does the doctor’s receptionist know more than she’s saying?
And what about Heath Powers, her landlord’s attractive son? Shouldn’t he be out in the world somewhere? He’s certainly wasted in the backwater of rural Vermont. Or is he? Maybe he’s just what Tennessee needs.
And through it all the question remains, can Tennessee keep a killer from going free?
