Coming to consciousness trapped under suffocating snow

Franceska Scarlatti, minor crime writer and struggling novelist, is finally able to save herself and combat the blizzard to rejoin the companions with whom she has been skiing in Mammoth, California - only to learn another member of their skiing party, Johanna Werner, is also missing. Is Johanna lost in the storm? Kidnapped? A runaway? The body of a young woman is found on the back of the mountain - shot to death. Is it Johanna? If not, could their plights be related?

Franceska teams up with her lifelong friends, Jimmy, a retired homicide detective, and Frank, an actor, for help and emotional support. And it proves a two way street as Jimmy unofficially searches for the kidnapper and possible serial killer of a ten year old boy.

In the twists and turns of this psychological thriller no one knows anyone else as well as they believe they do; and under the direction of half Cajun, half native American, FBI Agent Hawk Broussard, the investigation unravels like a Christmas ball - with secrets and deceptions revealed at every turn of the ribbon. The mystery takes the reader to the California wine country, ski country, San Diego and, with time running short, into the bowels of the women''s prison, Las Colinas. Flick on the night light and look into the mind of a terrorist.