Christine Bennett

It's a snowy Christmas at St. Stephen's Convent, where a cheerful party awaits an old friend and former confessor, Father Hudson McCormick. But he never reaches his destination. Christine Bennett, a former St. Stephen's nun, arrives to investigate the disappearance. But the nuns are mum until an old scandal involving the priest and a St. Stephen's novice rears its ugly head. Has Father McCormick, unable to face the scene of his sins, gone underground? Or has someone taken belated revenge, ensuring that the truth will never be known?

More than a year ago, Natalie Gordon went to buy a balloon at the Thanksgiving Day parade and dissolved into thin air. The police and a private investigator still have no leads. So when Natalie's despairing husband pleads with ex-nun Christine Bennett to help, she can't say no. Not only are Natalie's present whereabouts a mystery, but so is her past. Someone has stripped her personnel file in her old office, and even her husband knows little about her. Starting with a cardboard box of Natalie's belongings-a few books, keys, some cosmetics-Christy searches for a life someone has tried very hard to erase and finds a cast of characters so chilling that murder seems not only inevitable, but likely to happen again.