Going Somewhere in a Handbasket...

Beth Groundwater's To Hell in a Handbasket is one of my recent "finds." The mystery stars Claire Hanover, a Gift Basket Designer, in a thrilling mystery set on the slopes. Claire's family is on a ski vacation that turns deadly when they find that their social connections are a little more connected than they thought they were! This is the second Claire Hanover mystery -- the first is A Real Basket Case, which was published in 2007. Claire wants some quality time with her family, especially her daughter Judy who's been away in Paris for her senior year of college, so she arranges a ski trip to Breckenridge, which is close to their Colorado Springs home. Willful Judy has more interest in bonding with tall, dark Nick Contino than with her mom, and when Nick and his father Anthony decide to ski the back bowls of Copper Mountain together, Judy agrees to spend the day on Peak Eight with her parents and Nick's sister Stephanie. Stephanie ends up crashing into a tree and sustaining fatal injuries and though Judy thinks a showoff snowboarder ran Stephanie off the trail, Claire finds ski tracks leading from the crash site into the woods. Her suspicions grow when the snowboarder, Boyd Naylor, is run down by an SUV with plates similar to Anthony's. Claire arms herself for danger as she pursues Stephanie's killer and tries to decode the mystery. This book has nice descriptions of Breckenridge and skiing, and a spunky heroine - a perfect book to "get away" from the heat of June!