Having inherited a large estate from nasty crone Jane Engles, retired spinster librarian and fellow member of the now-defunct Real Murders Club, single Lawrenceton librarian Aurora 'Roe' Teagarden is mystified by the mere acquaintance's gift of money, jewelry and a two bedroom house by recent testament change. After chasing a masked intruder, she finds a skull hidden in the couch. Did the old lady kill someone and/or leave Aurora to solve the mystery or was she framed? Aurora must figure it all out before her ex-boyfriend Arthur, the police detective, and her new love interest Aubrey, the episcopal priest, figure out what she's up to, or the clueless local cops, her ex-boyfriend, Robbery Detective Arthur Smith, and befriended Homicide Detective Lynn Liggett, arrest her for sabotaging a criminal case. After rightly guessing where the decapitated skeleton may be buried, all missing person cases in the neighborhood constitute plausible victims, rendering many neighbors at least temporary suspects, causing tension with family, professional relations and friends, to be eliminated one by one.—KGF Vissers