Frigor Mortis — Ralph M. McInerny

From an actuarial point of view, death will come eventually. Stella Arthur can't wait for eventually. She doesn't love George Arthur. She never has. She'd married him for his money and now she wants to kill him for it. Actually, it's Roy Hunt, the town's bank president and Stella's longtime lover who commits the cold-blooded act of shoving poor George into a carefully cut hole in the ice-covered lake. Ironically, after the 'ice-fishing accident,' the three million dollars in George's safe-deposit box mysteriously disappears. As friends, lovers and killers alike play a wily and nervous game of 'money, money, who's got the money,' Stella is bludgeoned to death with a croquet mallet. It's further proof that a boiling pot of jealousy, greed and rage can fuel an icy tale of murder.