After her misadventures in Little Bavaria, Judith McMonigle Flynn has vowed to never ever find a dead body again (at least not for a while). But despite warnings from Cousin Renie, she can't turn down a suspicious guest reservation from Mary Smith of New York City. There must be lots of real Mary Smiths, especially in a place as big as NYC. . . . Unfortunately, Judith already knows the woman who shows up at Hillside Manor. It's none other than Ruby Tooms, the world-weary barmaid the cousins met at Oktoberfest. Fearing that Judith wouldn't accept her reservation if she used her real name, Ruby arrives with some unexpected baggage--a cold case she dumps on Hillside Manor's Persian carpet. After divorcing her father, Jimmy Tooms, Ruby's mother was strangled. Jimmy was in the clear. He was behind bars for stealing Judith's wallet when Dan McMonigle's ill-fated Meat & Mingle Café went bust. Ruby wants to know: would Judith please use her sleuthing skills to try and finger a murderer from twenty years ago Judith is about to say no when her husband Joe Flynn, tells her that the homicide case was his former partner and old pal Woody Price's first murder investigation. Now, the game is afoot, and for once Joe is more than willing to help his wife turn a cold case into a hot chase in pursuit of a long-ago killer.