Heather Larson-Randall knows about loss. In the past five years she's lost her husband, both parents, and now her brother. Heather has moved back to the family farmhouse in Idaho, and a forty acre Christmas tree farm, with her six-year-old son Colin. The coroner ruled her brother's death an overdose of cocaine, but she believes he was murdered. Seth has been clean for two years. Why would he start using again? And he never shot up cocaine; he always sniffed it.

DEA Agent Tyler Griffin thinks its murder too. Heather catches Tyler entering her house late one night with a key. She clocks him over the head with a frying pan, thinking he is an intruder. Why does he have a key? Heather learns Tyler and Seth had been working together to bring down a drug cartel that was using their Christmas tree operation to smuggle drugs into Canada. Seth got in too deep with the cartel and was trying to get out by working with the DEA agent. Seth gave Tyler the key to the house and told him if something went wrong to find his journal at the farm.

Heather and Tyler join forces to find the hidden journal for clues to Seth's death and the drug smuggling operation. As the days pass, Heather receives two mysterious, warning phone calls to leave the farm and then finds her home ransacked upon returning one day. All these unusual happenings lead them to believe there is something more to Seth's death. Can they find the journal before the next shipment of Christmas trees goes out and more drugs are smuggled across the border?

MURDER UNDER THE MISTLETOE is another inspirational, romantic suspense story in Terri Reed's Northern Border Patrol series. Each novel can stand on its own, but Ms. Reed returns characters from previous books as supporting characters in each one. Heather and Tyler are strong, realistic main characters, both having experienced loss in their lives and share a bond of having their lives touched by drugs. The setting of a northern Christmas tree farm is perfect for this endearing story. Both characters question why God allows bad things to happen in people's lives, but they rely on their faith and trust in God to see them through. MURDER UNDER THE MISTLETOE is a story about having a free will to choose our own path, a story about forgiveness of those we love when they make wrong choices. This is a great holiday read!

Book Summary

AGENT UNDERCOVER

DEA agent Tyler Griffin must stop a drug cartel that's using an Idaho Christmas tree farm to smuggle narcotics across the Canadian border. But to do his job, Tyler needs the cooperation of farm owner and widowed mother Heather Larson-Randall—whose informant brother died on Tyler's watch. Tyler knows a crucial piece of evidence is hidden somewhere on the property. But getting the protective mother to trust him is the hardest part of his mission. As threats against Heather mount, he vows to keep her and her child safe…and clear the farm of danger before Christmas.

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