It's a position that suits her well -until, in the first chapter, workmen digging for a swimming pool behind the spa unearth what proves to be a veritable boneyard of female skeletons, killed with arrows to their chests. Back in the work force, she has a new part-time job booking appointments at a fancy spa near Buckneck. Also, she's finally gotten her concealed carry permit (so her fans don't have to keep worrying about her being arrested :-) ), and she's gotten a Glock of her own, which she packs in a hip holster and generally doesn't leave home without.

She's gotten back into church, and into a rekindled faith that plays a role in her life, but doesn't overpower the plot of the book. Pregnant in the first book, Tess is now mom to a roughly year-old toddler. But here, we also quickly form the suspicion that, in reading these letters, we're glimpsing into the insane world of a serial killer. As in the first book, we quickly get the idea that the two strands of material will prove to be related. Even the structure is the same through much of the book, heroine Tess' first-person, present-tense narration in normal text is supplemented, at the beginnings of the short chapters, by one or more italicized paragraphs from the unsigned and undated letters of a father to his child. Stylistically and in terms of its general tone and vision, this sequel has much in common with the series opener, Miranda Warning, and many of the comments in my review of the latter apply here as well. This novel is written from a Christian worldview. Unpredictable psychological mystery replete with memorable characters, Trial by Twelve is Book Two in A Murder in the Mountains series and it won the 2015 Grace Award for Mystery/Romantic Suspense/Thriller/Historical Suspense. Even as she sifts through layers of deceit, Tess realizes too late that the killer's sights have zeroed in on her. When Tess agrees to help the cunning Detective Tucker gather clues from the inside, she discovers the posh spa hides more than dead bodies. A serial killer has returned to Buckneck, West Virginia.a skilled hunter with a unique taste in prey.

As the investigation gets underway, someone dumps a fresh body near the excavated burial site, confirming unspeakable fears. But when a pool installation turns up eight skeletons in the spa's back yard, Tess becomes entangled in a sleuthing job destined to go awry. Tess Spencer loves her low-key job at the Crystal Mountain Spa, which allows her plenty of down-time with her one-year old daughter and lawyer husband, Thomas. Meet Tess Spencer, the married sleuth readers say feels like a friend. Trial by Twelve is the 2015 Grace Award winner for Mystery/Romantic Suspense/Thriller/Historical Suspense

Trial by Twelve by Heather Day Gilbert