Set in the melting Minnesota midwinter, the effects of climate change are undeniable and Lake Maribelle’s retired elementary school principal, Millicent Forge, has a new hobby.

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Feeling that her efforts to save the planet have amounted to nothing, Millicent realizes that the most beneficial thing she can do for the environment is to kill herself—and she is about to do exactly that—when an exciting alternative occurs to her.

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Now Millicent is thinking globally and killing locally, reducing the population one citizen at a time, and Lake Maribelle is reeling from a series of apparent accidents. The only witness to Millicent’s extracurricular activities is the ever-observant Bella. That’s a scary spot to be—especially if you’re still in kindergarten.

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Borrowing conventions from thriller and suspense, Lake Maribelle pulls the reader into the heart of the small town’s ecosystem. It's a bit like Jan Karon’s Mitford if one of Father Tim’s parishioners turned homicidal. It’s like Garrison Keillor’s Lake Woebegone if the Coen brothers came to visit.