Jesse Camden is minding the store at the Gilded Lily Antiques and Vintage Shop when a stranger enters and begins asking questions about Jesse's friend and business partner Lindsey Hatch, who is also the barista at the tearoom next door. It's a bad beginning to a day that just gets worse when, within hours, two people are found dead.
While trying to learn more about the man who's stalking Lindsey, Jesse and Vivian Windsor find his body in a motel room. When it turns out they are also the last two people to see another victim alive, they become prime suspects in both deaths. Before the afternoon is out, Lindsey joins Jesse and Vivian at the sheriff's office to defend themselves, and the ladies of the Myrtle Grove Garden Club go on high alert to solve a twelve-year-old mystery and bring a killer to justice before one of them is charged for a murder they didn't commit.
Just as Jesse Camden is ready to shake herself out of her romantic rut and take a giant step forward with Sheriff Joe Tyler, a dead ex-fiance reaches out to yank her two steps back.
Misty Bennett, seventeen-year-old daughter of Jesse's former beau Ronald Bennett, is the closest thing to a daughter of her own that Jesse has ever had. So when Misty flees from her father's overbearing bride-to-be and travels across two states to arrive on Jesse's doorstep, Jesse takes the girl in. And when the fiancee herself shows up demanding the girl's return, Jesse sends the woman packing and vows to keep Misty safe until her father comes for her.
But when Ronnie Bennett's body is found just miles from Myrtle Grove, Jesse is left to unravel the mystery of his murder and help gather the shattered pieces of his daughter's life.
An aging heiress, the beloved dog who will inherit her fortune, and too many suspicious accidents. Or are they a prelude to murder?
Jesse Camden is a sucker for a mystery. So when Amanda Carmichael's assistant Bethany asks the Myrtle Grove Garden Club to investigate what she thinks are attempts on her employer's life, Jesse and Vivian Windsor agree. But before they can start, Bethany sends a frantic message that Amanda is leaving for her isolated estate in the Salish Sea, taking her dog Lady and a small staff, including Bethany, with her. As Jesse and Vivian go hurrying after them, disaster strikes again, and this time the 'accident' is fatal.
Jesse and Vivian suddenly find themselves racing toward the unknown, determined to uncover the truth and protect the small dog who not only inherits Amanda's fortune, but the danger that stalks this remote private island.
Nothing much happens in Myrtle Grove, Oklahoma. So when prominent businessman Harry Kerr is discovered face down in his pool shortly after dawn, the breakfast crowd in Jesse Camden's tearoom is buzzing. Recognizing the name, Jesse hurries to her friend Vivian Windsor, Myrtle Grove's resident oil heiress. Vivian is the great-aunt to Bliss Kerr, widow of the deceased and soon-to-be prime suspect in his suspicious death.
Clearing Bliss and finding the real murderer isn't what Jesse means when she offers her assistance. And wrangling an eager band of helpers while chasing a tangle of leads across the countryside, tripping over deputies and evidence along the way, isn't her first choice for her weekend. But here she is, and here she will be, hearing secrets no one should know, and discovering betrayals no one could live with, until Jesse finds her way through the maze of deceit to uncover the real killer.
When Jesse Camden, owner of the Gilded Lily Tea Room and Coffee House, agrees to meet her childhood friend, Winnie Rogers, for a morning of girl talk and reminiscing, or 'fishing' as Winnie likes to call it, Jesse anticipates a morning of shared confidences over a picnic brunch in the countryside. But spring in Oklahoma can be unpredictable, and when a tornado drops out of a wall cloud practically on top of them, Jesse and Winnie find themselves stranded with a demolished pickup and a dead body before they've even opened the picnic basket.
As the normally unflappable Winnie begins to cry and can't seem to stop, strangers who seem more menacing than helpful arrive, and the dead body turns out to be Winnie's recently divorced husband, Jesse realizes she has no choice but to call her nemesis Sheriff Joe Tyler for help. After that, things start to go downhill.
