PI Rachel Lyons stumbles on a corpse, gets invited to a hand quilting bee of secretive women and is asked to solve the murder of the woman whose seat she's sitting in.
Private Investigator Rachel Lyons discovers a corpse while hiking the recently burned hillsides of Southern California. While the coroner rules the old man's death an accident by wildfire, Rachel's keen eye and instincts lead her to a more disturbing conclusion.
When she gets invited to a secretive quilting group that meets not far from where the body was found, she begins to unravel a tangled web of terrible family secrets through the clues hidden in the stitches of a mysterious quilt. Her involvement with the close-knit quilters quickly becomes a dark and dangerous investigation.
Excerpt
I’m Rachel Lyons, early retiree from the public library world, newly anointed private investigator, in business with my husband Matthew Lyons for three years now.
I was currently out for a stroll in the woods with a conservation group I’d just joined. Only, the stroll was more like a trudge. The group I was trudging with was in search of signs of life after the firestorms that had burned a tenth of Southern California last week.
I was in search of female companionship.
The wonderful thing about working in a public library is working with a highly intelligent group of mostly women. The thing about working out of your own home is it’s mostly you and your partner, and occasionally a couple of apprentices. And your computers.
A sickly breeze coaxed my attention to the grim surrounds and the task at hand. The conversation among the group I was with, the Conservators, was typical, I suppose. Discussions of what native grasses and plants to restore, amsonia and coyote melon and cucurbita palmate. I had no real knowledge here so I just nodded agreement at the suggestions as to what to replant and what not.
Another slight breeze stirred the lurking foulness into the smoke-stained air and I turned, suddenly electrified. I knew that smell. My recent training had made me very familiar with it. The group resumed its discussion without me as I found myself following what was surely the scent of death—human death--just a few steps away and down behind a family of boulders on a gentle slope.
“Rachel! Where are you going? We shouldn’t wander off alone…” someone called out after me. Probably President Elise.
Book Four in Belinda Lawrence mystery series. Confirming the Professor was murdered proves to be a challenge and, gradually, as they get to know those associated with the Manor House, Belinda and Hazel discover another murder and an intricate web of
