In these busy times, mystery readers are increasingly discovering the joys of getting their crime genre fixes in the small, punchy packages offered by short stories. Award-winning short mystery fiction writer, Kris Neri, delivers quite a selection of thrills in this compilation: From the brand new story that lends this book its title, "The Rose in the Snow," a shocking story of abuse, loss and ultimately the resilience of the human heart, to "Smokescreen Signals," the story that closes it, which combines the trappings of the Old West with a more authentic look at Native American spirituality; to Kris' two Derringer Award winners: the madcap "L.A. Justice," which gave birth to her novel series sleuths, Tracy Eaton and her zany movie star mother, and the darkly original "Capital Justice." THE ROSE IN THE SNOW includes a variety of tones and outcomes, from the breezy froth of "No Star Murder," to the magic of "Showtime on the Winter Solstice," to the over-the-top humor of "Nothing Good Ever Came of a Bad Hair Day." It also includes two of the author's personal favorites, "Sentence Imposed" and "Deadly Obsessions," which feature Zoey Morgan, the edgy triathlete protagonist of her suspense novel, Never Say Die; both stories force Zoey to step up to the plate on behalf of helpless victims, while silencing her own demons in the process.