Wisconsin journalist AnnaLise Griggs receives a phone call from a flustered friend in North Carolina informing that her mother made an almost tragic mistake at the local blood drive. She nonchalantly drained three pints of blood from a society matron. AnnaLise hurries home to find her mother, Daisy, rational but occasionally adding odd comments to their conversation. While AnnaLise tries to make sense of her mom's health, she visits with old friends stirring up good and bad memories among the group.

When the former sheriff is found murdered and that death is quickly followed by the murder of a Japanese businessman, AnnaLise dives into the investigation. She loves a good mystery and AnnaLise does not want to face her mother's problems. Her search opens up old gossip and wounds that the killer wants kept secret. Suddenly, she and her mother become targets. AnnaLise races to expose the killer before Daisy becomes the next victim.

Ms. Balzo, author of the Maggy Thorsen mysteries, begins a new series with a group of eccentric and quirky characters in a small town environment that elicits laughter and tears as it draws readers into their complicated world. The plot offers plenty of surprises and it will catch readers completely unaware at the startling conclusion.

Book Summary

The first in a new series by the author of the Maggy Thorsen mysteries.

Life on Sutherton's Main Street has always been inexplicably hazardous. Like the student who bet he could paddle a beer-filled ice chest across the lake. And lost. Not to mention the occasional tourist who wandered into the mountains, never to wander back out. But the day Daisy Griggs siphoned three pints of blood from poor Mrs. Bradenham seemed to set a new standard. Now more and more people are dying and unless Daisy’s daughter, AnnaLise Griggs, can figure out why, her mother may be next.

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