A gentle, lonely woman with deadly powers becomes the quarry of a detective obsessed with solving an impossible killing.

The Depression's winter gloom has crept into the summerhouse of the Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts. The dead body of a woman "of dubious reputation" -- a lost soul befriended by many of the brothers and sisters -- sits at a table in an evening gown, snow swirling around her frozen ankles, her lifeless arms stretched out before her. A frantic call goes out to Kentucky, begging Eldress Rose Callahan to brave the February cold and come East, where her keen eye and peerless deductive powers are needed to help lift a terrible weight from the bereft and dwindling community of Believers. But Sister Rose's arrival is greeted with local suspicion and spreading terror when murder once again scars the gentle village. And as the fury of winter further isolates the small village from its suspicious neighbors, Sister rose and her dear friend Gennie Malone must race to unmask a killer who may be mad enough to keep killing throughout this frigid season of dying.

In their isolated country house, a mother and her two children prepare to wait out a blinding snowstorm. Two violent predators walk through the door. Nothing will ever be the same.

Marjorie Winslow had no idea that she would die today. But she will. And she won't be the only one if Evelyn Winslow had anything to say about it. Get in her way, or get too close to her family and you get...a gift. A killing gift.

Emily's dad is accused of killing a teenage girl. She's sure he's innocent, and is determined to discover the truth of what happened. But her journey leads her to discover that dangerous games are being played in the woods at night ...