Hospice for Murder

When Foxy McFarlane finds a dead girl on the mountain it tears a hole in the tangled web of devotion and deceit that conceals sex-trafficking, medical malpractice, and murder among true believers in The Doorways to Heaven Church in a blue-collar New England town.

The second book in the Mill River Series, the drama surges forward in Hospice for Murder as character-driven storylines converge to expose a sinister core group within the Doorways Board of Directors.

The heroes in this story are all life-sized people. Foxy is a clinical social worker, and Pete is a freelance writer. They are joined by a geriatric team of untrained but determined seniors - widows Marge and Anna, and Bud, a blind ex-merchant marine from Trinidad - friends of Pete’s uncle Willie when he resided in the High Rise Senior Center.

Wildcards among the group include Gretchen, a homeless 75 year old schizophrenic, and Kenny Bosco, a lost soul who has lived on the streets since he was 13 and survives on petty crime and small drug deals.

Retired homicide cop Dominick Petruzio attempts to supervise the group, with marginal success. He is assisted by Patrick, generally known as “Marge’s son the cop,” and Detective Rick Henderson who brings marginal social skills but a genuine aptitude for technology to the investigation.

The Doorways to Heaven Church took off like a brushfire fanned by the updraft of evangelical Christianity and its unilateral promise of moral certainty. Hospice for Murder restores the uncertainty.