Well Offed in Vermont — Amy Patricia Meade

In bucolic small-town Vermont, tapestries expert Stella Thornton Buckley feels out of her element -- and not just because she's fresh from Manhattan. Mere hours after moving to maple syrup country, she and her husband, Nick, find a dead man, Allen Weston, in a well on their property. The police investigation forces the couple out of their lovely vintage farmhouse and -- since the motels are packed with leafpeepers -- into a less than luxurious deer camp. Instead of mourning the loss of electricity and running water, Stella and Nick drive their Smart car all over the Vermont hamlet to question the quirky locals about Weston, a shrewd businessman who rubbed a lot of folks the wrong way.

Stella and Nick may never shed their flatlander reputation in this close-knit community, but can they get enough information from the taciturn townspeople to help Sheriff Mills solve the murder and sew up the investigation?