Murder at Tulip Time
Murder is rare in the small, lakeside tourist town of Holland, Michigan. But when the black sheep of a prominent family is found strangled and buried in the city's largest tulip garden, it is big news for local crime reporter John Garth.
The grisly discovery comes right at the start of the Dutch town's annual Tulip Time Festival that brings in 100,000 visitors to watch parades, wooden shoe dancers and photograph some 10 million blooming tulips.
Fighting Garth for stories is his sometimes girlfriend Jennifer Jones, a police reporter for the competing newspaper. He's a laid back, bachelor with time management problems who always gets the scoop. She's a hyperactive, spunky reporter who can't understand how he keeps beating her on stories but thinks Garth would make good husband material.
In the mix of the festival and murder stories, a mystery woman arrives with a clue to the motive for the murder-a century-old theft of land that could expose the corruption of this highly religious community. Jennifer doesn't like the mystery woman at all, especially when the woman starts getting close to her boyfriend.
Things get dangerous when Garth discovers the murderer may be a serial killer who has been pruning away townsfolk for decades. Someone tries to kill Garth and he has to solve the murder to stay alive.
In the end, Garth has to fight for his life on the spinning blades of the of the town's 140-foot-tall windmill. Will Garth survive? And if he does, will he ask Jennifer to marry him?