Everybody has someone they d secretly like to kill. For Mallory and his fellow professional mystery authors, that someone is caustic book critic Kirk Rath. And while that s no secret, it s certainly a surprise when a busload of writers takes part in a mountain resort s Murder Mystery Weekend and discovers their archenemy has been cast in the plum part of the victim. What s more surprising is how well Kirk Rath plays dead until Mallory discovers the most hated man on Mohonk Mountain isn t playing. Now, snowbound in a house full of murder mystery writers, murder mystery fans, and at least one mystery murderer, Mallory must once more play detective for real while keeping the weekend game-players from finding out there s a genuine game of deadly cat-and-mouse afoot. And that s the easy part. What s going to be harder than Mike Hammer s fist is figuring out if one of his comrades in crime fiction is capable of putting down the pen and picking up the sword. Murder will out, as they say. But can even the masterful Mallory outwit a roguish gallery of the finest plotters in print?"