Time to Kill — Miriam Lynch

LAST MILL AND TESTAMENT. For free lance artist Carol Gates, it began as another money-making assignment. She would illustrate a book of true crime stories written by literary Henry Marston, who lived in a peaceful old mill in Vermont. Not long after arriving at the mill, Carol finds Marston's body mangled in a river bank -- with the mill-race open, the wheel turning. The sheriff insists it's an accident. But after hearing about land scandals, burglaries and family feuds among the village people, Carol is positive that Marston was murdered. She sketches a portrait of hate that is rooted in the past, and the final strokes are more dangerous than anyone would have suspected.