When The Snowman Melts

About the Book

Marcus Garvey Walker is smart, savvy, handsome, black and a partner in one of San Franciscos most prestigious law firms, Rheinhold, Marks and Walker.  Marcus is married to Elizabeth, a successful and attractive TV news anchor.  Their symphonious aligned life is suddenly interrupted when Marcus best friend Larry confides to him that he is HIV-positive.  Larry drops the news like a nuclear warhead and doesnt explain it even when Marcus pushes him.  This revelation by Larry causes Marcus to teeter.  Although he loves Elizabeth, he hasnt exactly been the perfect husband.  Almost...but...The but...is what causes everything to take on a new life of its own.  He knows that he and Elizabeth must talk.  He is reluctant since Larrys wife and Elizabeth are also friends.

Then things get worse.  Elizabeths friend and co-worker discovers her husband has been shot and killed upon her return home.  The murdered husband is a political giant in San Franciscos politics.  The case is high profile.  At first, detectives lean on the friend as a suspect until it is learned that she was at a barbecue given by Marcus and Elizabeth at the time of the murder.

Macbeth Chen and Jorge Ramirez, two of SFPDs ace detectives are assigned to the case with marching orders to solve this case yesterday.  Their investigation take them to several false leads in the Castro district.  All roads turn out to be dead ends.  Then one day in court on a totally unrelated case, Chen spots a man in court wearing the same identical jade Buddha diamond encrusted pin that the murdered man had been wearing.  He soon learns the mans identity and is hot on his trail.  When the man realizes this, he drives to a deserted industrial area not caring that Chen and Ramirez are following him.  When they cautiously approach the car, they learn that the man has shot himself in the temple and is dead.  The man turns out to be Larry, Marcus best friend.  Now Marcus is hit squarely in the face with everything, he and Elizabeth finally talk.  Elizabeth is devastated with what she learns.  In a rage she leaves Marcus.  Alone and in pain, Marcus tries to sought all that has happened.  He is determined that he will win her back at all cost.  Just when he is consumed with how he is going to win her back, a familiar key opens the lock.

About the Author

Vivian Horne is the author of numerous short stories and the novel When the Snowman Melts. Ms. Horne graduated from California State University at Dominguez Hills. She lives in Pasadena, California. Presence of Grace is her second novel. Cover Art by: Sylvia L. Parker