Put-upon investigator Stanley Hastings is stranded at the Blue Frog Ponds Inn, a trendy New England bed-and-breakfast, where he is vacationing with his wife, Alice. Their cheerless room with its paper-thin walls, no TV, and a blue cartoon frog on the door is doing little for Stanley's spirits and less for his libido. Besides that, someone has started bumping off the guests. The first murder in fact happens practically under Stanley's nose. He is sitting in the dining room when, with an ear-splitting scream, a waitress discovers that the stunning young blonde Scandinavian woman she is serving has lost a lot more than her appetite. So Stanley finds himself a key witness, if not a prime suspect, in the bristly local police chief Pinehurst's case. Back home, Stanley could call upon his friends on the New York City police force to help him solve the crime, but not at Blue Frog Ponds. Here he has only his wits, his wife, and a striped orange cat - all of which he will need if he's going to catch a killer before the culprit strikes uncozily close to home.