When tragedy brings Merrin McKenzie back to St Ives, she knows adjusting might take time, even with the comfort of Christmas back in her hometown. Stepping back from her career as a solicitor, she agrees to clean holiday rentals for her friends who own cottages nearby. She anticipates dirty laundry and sandy floors, but she didn''t sign up for a dead body, neatly tucked up in one of the guest beds.The police are baffled by the young man''s identity and the strangeness of his death. For Merrin, however, coincidences are beginning to stack up. Even though Inspector Louis Peppiatt is sceptical of her theories, something sinister is hiding beneath the festive surface of this charming seaside town. As the case unfolds, a dark side to the Cornish coast emerges. A&B has longstanding success with local crime writers. Deborah''s books will appeal to fans of Stephanie Austin and Rebecca Tope and viewers of TV shows like Doc Martin. Deborah Fowler has already attracted a hungry readership for her self-published crime novels, now more widely and energetically published by Allison & Busby. Meet Merrin, a holiday let cleaner in the idyllic St Ives, who has access to dark secrets, dirty laundry and the odd dead body to clean up.