It's Christmas, and Marine Lieutenant Oliver Wright wants two things--to duck a medical discharge and to be a homicide detective again if World War II ever ends. Neither will happen if he can't evade the Navy surgeon who wants to cut off his leg. He's given a taste of his old life when a soldier is murdered, and Oliver is called in to investigate.

He struggles to solve the crime while protecting the secrets of a grieving mother; riding herd on a twelve-year-old girl and her rambunctious dog; and deciding whether he can trust a woman who once broke his heart. Then a priest is murdered, and an innocent man confesses. Oliver believes the murders of the priest and the soldier are connected, and he and his German shepherd, Harley, follow a trail of clues from jazz clubs to the San Francisco Opera House.

When he solves the murders, he receives an unexpected Christmas present--the possibility of being a homicide detective again. But now that the job is within his grasp, what is he willing to sacrifice to claim it?

Set in northern California, An Unlamented Death is the third stand-alone book in the Oliver Wright WWII Mysteries.