In the latest installment in the beloved Shady Hollow series, everyone's favorite vulpine investigator Vera Vixen must contend with a cold-hearted killer-and the ghost of her own past.

It's a crisp, cool autumn in Shady Hollow, and preparations are underway for the annual Harvest Festival. Creatures have flocked from far and wide to partake in the seasonal festivities, from pumpkin carving to pie tasting to soup throwing. With all these new faces around town, it's the perfect time for someone to slip in unnoticed.

Unless that someone is Bradley Marvel, the most famous author-and most noticeable personality-in any woodland warren. It seems the wolf is on the lam. Back in the city, a body was found in his penthouse apartment at Mockingbird Court, and Marvel skipped town before the questioning could commence.

Marvel claims to be innocent, and it's up to Vera and her friends to piece together what might have happened that fateful night so many miles away in the beating heart of the big city. But things get complicated when Vera learns that she also knows the victim ... and might even be implicated herself.