Book excerpt: It's Christmastime in the seemingly tranquil town of Stone's Throw, South Carolina, but amid all the caroling, cookies, and cheer, a murderer casts a not-so-jolly pall on the holiday season. Augusta Goodnight, guardian angel, sometime sleuth, and welcome boarder with longtime resident Lucy Nan Pilgrim, comes to the aid of her friends when, as Lucy Nan is searching for the perfect Christmas tree on her grandmother's abandoned estate, a mysterious stranger plummets to his death from the mansion's balcony. Lucy Nan can't shake off childhood stories of the ghost of a girl who fell from the same spot long ago---has the ghost come back to haunt the living, or is there an all-too-human murderer at work? Mysterious events are soon heating up faster than spiced punch left on the burner, and it will take Augusta's help, not to mention some celestial Southern cooking, for peace to be restored and Christmas lights to shine once again in the little town of Stone's Throw.