Murder at Toll House

A quintessential Malice Domestic murder mystery, this novel features the recently retired Judge Godbold who has signed on for a three-week writers conference at a small college in Kentucky. An avid amateur poet, she hopes to gain valuable tips from guest poet Diane Marvel. Baby, as the judge is known to friends, finds at the conference her friend and doctor Moss Cunningham, who is trying to write a family history and is therefore to be mentored by Harold Hillman, a last minute substitute for another writer. The two friends are to be in rooms at the old Toll House, an early 19th century structure owned by the college and used for conferences. Also on the property are several cottages for those who wish for privacy. This includes a rough fellow and owner of a gym, Rafe Barlow, who is there because of Diane Marvel, even though she is married to her publisher. Baby, rising early the first morning, stumbles upon the body of a social worker from Nashville, who has been inexplicably murdered. Then another murder takes place in the old bell tower. The question is how were these two connected? It takes all of Judge Godbold’s talents to pierce the secret that drove a conference attendee to murder,