Henry Carter Hull

Amateur sleuth Alvira has her hands full in the weeks before Christmas when she vows to find out why a friend who had promised to leave her townhouse to an after-school shelter suddenly changed her will, and at the same time attempts to locate a child whose mother left her on the steps of a neighborhood church seven years earlier.

On Christmas eve in New York City, seven-year-old Brian is kidnapped when he tries to recover his mother's wallet, which has been stolen by a pickpocket.

Sterling Brooks, who lived a life not quite good enough to get him into Heaven, is given a chance to redeem himself by reuniting seven-year-old Marissa with her beloved father and grandmother, who have been forced to join the Witness Protection Program after they agreed to testify against two gangsters.