2022-04-27
Hate the competitive games your company puts you through? Here’s one that leads to murder.
Miranda Trent is well on her way to achieving success with Paint & Shine, her Kentucky tour company, using a combination of her artistic skills, locally sourced and cooked food, her moonshine business, and adventure in the area parks. All hands are on deck for the ambitious plan she has developed for a corporate team-building workshop that could make or break her season. Mr. Frank Tobin, the vice president of human resources at sportswear manufacturer Big Sky, continues to make changes up to the last minute, but he sends his assistant, Miranda’s high school friend Rowena Gardner, to help. The guests, all housed at Hemlock Lodge in Natural Bridge State Park, are a disparate bunch, every one of them fiercely competitive since promotions depend on how well they acquit themselves. Then Tobin is unexpectedly replaced by abrasive Terry Burns, whose list of the two teams instantly makes it obvious that he’s divided the participants almost entirely by sex and race and plans to fire the losing team. Once the teams get out on the trail, they’re joined by Miranda’s boyfriend, Forest Ranger Austin Morgan. Rowena clues Miranda in on office gossip about the animosity Burns has already engendered. So when the group comes upon him on the trail with Rowena beside him, weeping and holding a bloodstained rock, she’s far from the only suspect. It’s fortunate that Miranda has experience with murder, since it will take all her skills to unmask the killer.
A pleasing combination of mystery, local color, and tempting recipes for food and drink.
