HARD CHRISTMAS: A Cat Marsala Mystery. This item is unavailable.HARD CHRISTMAS: A Cat Marsala Mystery

Freelance reporter Cat Marsala has done lots of tough investigative pieces lately. Now she would like something a little softer - and a feature story on Christmas tree farming sounds ideal.
She's thrilled when Henry DeGraaf, president of the West Michigan Evergreen Growers Association, invites her to spend Thanksgiving at his family farm north of Holland, Michigan, where she can observe the Christmas tree industry up close. With only seven hours of daylight, the work is intense, the team spirit legendary.
Cat receives a warm welcome at the DeGraaf farmhouse, especially from DeGraaf's twelve-year-old niece, Nell. Grandmother DeGraaf prepares delicious old Dutch dishes, and Great-Aunt Clara shares with Cat letters written by the first DeGraaf to settle in Michigan. Cat is impressed with the history and tradition of the family, but it's not long before she discovers the terrible tensions that permeate the household.
A dark mystery lies over the death of the family patriarch, Henry DeGraaf, Sr., who died in the spring. Walking in the Christmas tree fields when the crop-dusting plane flew over, he suffered a fatal asthma attack brought on by the chemicals. He was somehow caught without the orange vest that would have warned the pilot not to spray.
While DeGraaf's death could have been an accident, a second death proves without a doubt that a killer lurks in this unlikely pastoral setting where the kitchen table is laden with Gran's casseroles and apple pies, but one of the diners, among either the family or the crew, has evil motives.

Barbara D'Amato was the 1999-2000 president of Mystery Writers of America. D'Amato is also a past president of Sisters in Crime International. She writes a mystery series starring Chicago freelance investigative reporter Cat Marsala, a series starring Chicago patrol cops Suze Figueroa and Norm Bennis, and standalone novels. D'Amato is a playwright, novelist, and crime researcher. Her research on the Dr. John Branion murder case formed the basis for a segment on Unsolved Mysteries, and she appeared on the program. Her musical comedy The Magic Man and the children's musical The Magic of Young Houdini, written with husband Anthony D'Amato, played in Chicago and London. Their Prohibition-era musical comedy RSVP Broadway, which played in Chicago in 1980, was named an "event of particular interest" by Chicago magazine. A native of Michigan, she has been a resident of Chicago for many years. D'Amato has been a columnist for the Sisters in Crime newsletter and Mystery Scene magazine. She has worked as an assistant surgical orderly, carpenter for stage magic illusions, assistant tiger handler, stage manager, researcher for attorneys in criminal cases, and she occasionally teaches mystery writing to Chicago police officers.