Mira James is a librarian in her small Minnesota town.  She lives in a trailer home and works a second job as a journalist for the local paper in an effort to pay her bills.  December is here and Mira, her cat, and dog are all freezing and low on funds when she finds out that in order to save money, the mayor is closing the library for a few weeks.  Depressed, hungry and cold, Mira goes to her boss at the paper to see if she can do any extra work for him.  

Having a good relationship with her boss, Mira quickly discovers that the paper is also struggling but is offered a check that will cover the class that is required for her to get her Private Investigator’s license.  Mira packs up the trailer and returns to her hometown to take the class and spend the holidays with her Mom. While struggling with bad memories of high school, her relationship with her now-dead Dad, and taking the class, she finds herself getting involved in finding a serial killer who kills one of her high school friends.

This is a well written, quirky murder mystery for the holidays.  Mira is a character you can not help but like and you will find yourself rooting for her as she works out issues in her life and finds the killer.  This is not a cozy mystery and although not graphic it is creepy and the killer is a bit scary.