A Stillness in Bethlehem — Jane Haddam

It's Christmastime in Bethlehem, Vermont, but there's no deep and dreamless sleep for this little town. Instead, everyone's getting ready to stage the annual Nativity play, the town's one tourist attraction and economic mainstay. Everyone except outsider Tisha Verek, who's getting ready to meet with the ACLU to stop the religious pageant But before Tisha even leaves her isolated rural home, someone stops her --with a .22 rifle.

The local cops and state police are happy to call it a hunting accident. But former FBI man Gregor Demarkian, one of Bethlehem's many tourists seeking a room at the inn, isn't so sure. If Tisha's death was an accident, why hasn't the shooter come forward? And how did an identical mishap befall a harmless old woman on the same morning? Once again, Demarkian, accompanied by Father Tibor Kasparian and society-girl-turned-bestsefling-author Bennis Hannaford, is swept into a tantalizing case that mixes festival with felony. Urged on by his self-appointed assistants, Demarkian must summon the spirit of Christmas past to solve the murders yet to come....