Dirty Christmas

This Christmas, everyone in Halcyon Bay has something dirty to hide.

Nora Whitlock left her Maine hometown ten years ago and swore she'd only return to sell the family inn. But the night she arrives, the first snow is falling, the town is hanging its lanterns, and a stranger is standing in her late father's private office.

Cal Rourke is a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer turned insurance investigator. He doesn't trust small towns, and he definitely doesn't trust a woman who inherited the one set of ledgers his employer wants found. He's been sent to close a suspicious claim on the inn's "accidental" boathouse fire. What he finds instead is a forensic accountant who can read the numbers hiding fifteen years of dirty money, and a killer who has been watching the Whitlock family since her father's death.

They need each other. Nora has the access, the code, and the memories. Cal has the resources and a willingness to step between her and the dark. As the snow deepens and the roads close, they're forced to share the inn's last warm rooms, work side by side, and face a truth neither expected: the friendly faces at the tree lighting, the cookie swap, and the town's legendary Dirty Santa night are hiding something that has already cost one life.

With Lantern Night on Christmas Eve and a blizzard sealing them in, the only question is who they can trust, and who's smiling while they lie.

Fast-paced, twisty, and cozy-but-tense, with an edge-of-your-seat pulse and a hearth-side glow, plus a slow-burn attraction that gets hotter as the danger closes in.

Tropes: Romance Amid Danger • Forced Proximity • Protector Hero • Working Together • Small-Town Christmas • Snowed In