tony vellela

"An excellent read, fun, confounding, and even appetizing, thanks to the heroic culinary artistry of Nora Berry, proprietor of the campus caf/bookshop 'Leaves of Grass,' and amateur sleuth."-Joni Pacie, author of Murder by the Mob

Nora Berry's sleepy little college town woke up with a start when Santa was found belly up with a hypodermic needle spiked in his arm. Nora's young nephew, Chief Detective Michael Valenti, is new to the job but not to the town and he already had his hands full with a student's death that possessed curious implications. Were these fatalities actually murders? Meanwhile, this pristine town is suddenly overwhelmed by a synthetic drug problem that is also wreaking havoc in the university community. But it isn't until a beautiful co-ed winds up strangled in a room over the music store that things start falling into place.