At the start of Ballard's delightful sixth cozy (after 2005's Too Late for Angels), Lucy Nan Pilgrim is teaching a "living history" course at the local women's college in Stone's Throw, S.C., when one of the coeds disappears. While on an outing with her students, Lucy Nan finds the corpse of the missing girl. She later learns that over the past decade, other students have died under strange circumstances, each victim the recipient of a letter quoting Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass. The murder of the school's handyman, Londus Clack, complicates the case even further, but Lucy Nan, with the help of Augusta Goodnight, her guardian angel, roots out the snake in the garden. As always, Ballard writes with warmth and sincerity, infusing her characters and setting with considerable charm. (Dec.)

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