Variety hall actress Ophelia Flax knows
how to win over an audience. That’s why she’s accepted
the marriage proposal of the brutish Comte de Griffe to
nettle her occasional investigative partner—and romantic
sparring partner—the pompous if dashing Professor
Penrose.
But with his boorish table manners, wild mane
of hair, and habit of prowling away the wee hours, the
comte has shredded Ophelia’s last nerve. She intends to
disengage from her feral fiancé at his winter hunting
party—until Penrose, his lovely new fiancée, and a
stagecoach of stranded travelers arrive at the Comte’s
sprawling château. Soon she can’t tell the boars from the
bores.
When one of the guests is found clawed and
bloody in the orangerie, Ophelia is determined to solve
the murder before everyone starts believing the local
version of Beauty and the Beast. But until the snows
melt, she can’t trust her eyes—or her heart—since even
the most civilized people hold beastly secrets...