It was nobody's fault, unless you counted the mice, and even they didn't mean to start trouble. A forgotten candy cane lured them to the Christmas tree stored in the basement of St. Anne's Hospital. The nibbling and gnawing just went on from there. Now there are holes in the trunk where none should be and not a single branch will stay in place. Despite this disaster, the nurses of Psychiatric Ward One are determined to deck the blues by decking the halls. When an anonymous donor sends them an artificial balsam, they happily press their patients into decorating it. But lighting the new tree ends with a bang! Who planted the bomb that wrecks havoc in the little town of Rhineburg? A frustrated employee fired by St. Anne's despised administrator? A student terrorist from Bruck University? Or Caroline Rhodes, a nurse with a suspicious past who survived the explosion but refuses to discuss it? Tagged as a suspect by the FBI, Caroline must prove her innocence by unraveling a devilish plot devised to eliminate one man's nemesis. Aided by history professor Carl Atwater, Caroline cuts through a maze of conflicting stories, red herrings, and downright lies to bring a killer to justice.
Chicago native Mary Welk has drawn on her experience in the medical field to successfully knock off sixteen characters in her Readers Choice Award-winning "Rhodes to Murder" mystery series featuring ER nurse Caroline Rhodes and history professor Carl Atwater. Mary's books include A MERRY LITTLE MURDER, THE RUNE STONE MURDERS, TO KILL A KING (returning in print and ebook format soon), and THE SCARECROW MURDERS (returning in print and ebook format soon). Her short stories have appeared in several anthologies, most recently in DARK THINGS II: CAT CRIMES, CHICAGO BLUES, and MISSING. Stories available on Amazon as Kindle Shorts are "Murder Most Politic", "Hickory, Dickory, Doc", and the Lovey Award winning "A Family Affair". Also available: THE CASEBOOK OF CAROLINE RHODES, a two story collection featuring the shorts "The Case of the Fugitive Farmer" and "The Case of the Extra Ingredient". Mary's latest work is the novella FRAMED, which can be found in HEARTS AND DAGGERS, a romantic suspense three-novella book written in cooperation with two other authors. A former columnist and feature writer for Mystery Scene and Futures magazines, Mary is currently working on the fifth "Rhodes to Murder" novel.
