When it comes to raw-deal Christmas presents, you can't beat being thrown in an out-of-state jail on a trumped up charge-but detective Clarke Lantham can't resist a morbid challenge. So when he calls up his brother for help with bail, he steels himself for the ordeal of spending a holiday weekend with relatives who put the "strange" back in "estranged."
That was his first mistake. But with only two days to clear his name before he gets thrown back in the slammer-and an old client gumming up the works, a ten-year-old niece with a ghost problem, and the occasional murder competing for his attention-it probably won't be his last.