MANAGING MURDER combines promiscuity, manipulation and a killing spree to set the climate for dangerous intrigue. Survival requires more than solving the mystery. Kristine Dunmore must reclaim the ability to believe in her relationships, most of all, the one with herself. Kristine's dream of lasting love was violated as a teenager by her boyfriend so she came to believe in the one night kind. That is how the trouble starts. Her lovers are found dead in the rooms they shared the nights before. All signs point to her since she was the last to see them alive. When a detective investigating the case provides her an alibi, bodies begin surfacing even nearer to her. The message seems to be if not prison, then death. Even more harrowing is when Kristine begins to see the ability for such brutality in those closest to her. Her best friend has been in more than one rage in the name of protecting her. His recent scarceness makes him a likelier suspect. A new lover proves untrue and frightens her with a darker side. And, coworkers at the seaside hotel, Bedlumm Inn, in Palm Coast where she is the manager of have their own gains, which could come about with her demise. Healing the wound she has been unable to drown out of her memory entails trusting in her undependable instinct again. It is her only chance to figure out her unwitting involvement with the slaughterer. If she can fish him out, it might also provide her the confidence to accept a love that could become the lasting kind. Her chance arrives when a storm sweeps in and scatters everyone, except the killer, but taking the bait will mean more lives, including her own.