Books by Charles Atkins

Lilian Campbell and her best friend and lover, Ada Strauss, are woken early by the sound of sirens: the local nursing home, Nillewaug Village, is ablaze. The police and fire chiefs find evidence to suggest the fire was accidental, but Detective Mattie Perez can't help but wonder why the smoke alarms didn't work.

When a severed finger shows up at the Friday night auction, unlikely heroines Lil Campbell and Ada Strauss have to wonder - where's the rest of the body? A question that leads to festering small-town secrets, and the unraveling of a mystery that shows all is not well in a town famed for its postcard perfect New England charm.