Book excerpt: Angie Marchetti should be over the hill by now, the ski hill, that is. Instead, she's muddled up to her middle in murder on the mountain. Angie provides undercover security services to winter resorts in exchange for her one passion in life…skiing. Her clients pay her, and her imposing canine sidekick, Nikki, a spoiled Alaskan Malamute, with meals, lodging, lift tickets and dog biscuits for their help in tracking crime in snow country. Snow Ghosts is an action-packed romp down the slopes in the competitive world of ski resorts. Set in the Pennsylvania Allegheny Mountains, Angie encounters aging glory-boys and the shock of corruption in the ski business. She and Nikki converge with the ominous Barrows, striking, yet cunning twin brothers who own Fox's Run. Her cranky friend Brad Lennon manages Monastery, the competing resort. It is situated on the former site of a real monastery, abandoned a century ago, but leaving a ministerial aura about the mountain. Up, down and around the slopes with such likely names as Vespers, Celibacy and Monk's Revenge, the mission is to find the culprit who is sabotaging the tiny resort with dangling chair lifts, fires, collapsed bridges and bad publicity. Snow Ghosts is sprinkled with sensuous ski scenes, love for animals, and an occasional hot flash. Read it after a hard day on the slopes!