This is the first in Annis Ward Jackson's series, Ellis Crawford Murder Mysteries. A career Marine MP, seriously injured in a terrorist bombing, decides to try life as a police chief in a small town in eastern North Carolina. While attempting to familiarize himself with the town's crime history he finds a red envelope containing reports on four murders from four separate years, all committed around Christmas. Chief Ellis Crawford has only a few days to solve these murders and prevent the next, which he is convinced will be on Christmas Day.