Harriet Andover was a smart businesswoman who did not suffer fools gladly, yet somehow her house was full of them. With a husband who has no head for money and two grown stepchildren who would rather do anything other than an honest day's work, Harriet had every intention of righting the ship and putting her family back on the path to respectability. But she soon discovers that the best intentions can lead to murder when she is strangled inside her mansion filled with holiday guests. It would seem that everyone present had a motive to kill the rich woman, and no one is being quite honest regarding their whereabouts at the time of the murder. And to put the icing on the Christmas cookies, the room where Harriet's body was found was locked from the inside and she had the key in her pocket. The case grows more complicated with each passing hour, and solving it before Christmas is starting to look like a yuletide dream. But Mrs. Jeffries and the household have no inten tion of letting Inspector Witherspoon down and soon mine valuable evidence from the depths of Hamet's past. As the clues mount, this dedicated band of merry sleuths will not rest until they've delivered a stocking full of coal to a crafty killer.