Being a prime suspect in a murder investigation isn't quite the idyllic retirement anyone would envisioned but when her handyman dies of taxine poisoning, Edna Davies is placed in just such a predicament. As an amateur herbalist, she is certain she didn't concoct a poisonous potion but she is shunned by the townsfolk, questioned by the police and threatened by thieves. As she desperately tries to save herself from arrest ... or worse, she follows a trail that leads her back 40 years in the victim's history.

Rhode Islander Edna Davies is in Colorado on an errand of mercy when she finds herself embroiled in a mystery that may send her son to prison for murder. Grant Davies may have been the last person to speak with Anita Collier, but he is refusing to talk. The woman appears to be alive, but only because the mechanics of her life are running on autopilot. Her paycheck is deposited automatically, her bills are paid directly from her bank account, and her phone calls are answered by voice mail, but nobody has actually seen her for several weeks. Private detective Ernie Freedman is convinced that Grant knows where Anita is, so he turns to Edna as a last resort and challenges her to help him find the missing woman. Anita must be located while she still has a chance to be united with her only remaining relative. If she isn’t found before her great-aunt dies, Anita stands to lose a multi-million dollar inheritance. Edna must try to convince Grant to reveal what he knows by whatever means she can. In her search for the truth, Edna plunges deep into danger when she uncovers more than one murder and struggles to prevent another.

Edna Davies is heading for the Providence Art Club when she spots a valuable heirloom brooch in the newly-tilled soil of a friend’s yard. Her discovery helps to solve a 50-year-old mystery but it also precipitates a murder. As she tries to make sense of the killing, Edna realizes more than one person is hiding behind a false identity. Matching wits with extortionists, arsonists and frauds, she must determine who is friend and who is foe before another person dies.

Edna Davies is frantic. Attending to an invalid husband has put her behind schedule and now, with less than a week before Christmas and with family gathering for the first time in years, she hasn’t even put up a tree. As a winter storm approaches, the owner of a local cat shelter is found dead and Mary Osbourne disappears. Trying to juggle holiday plans with the search for her neighbor, Edna meets a killer and may miss Christmas.

Edna Davies is angry and worried. “Innocent until proven guilty” is the way our justice system works, but apparently not the way people react. Rose Beck was questioned repeatedly after the death of her husband, but she was never arrested, never charged. When Edna’s nine-year-old granddaughter meets and befriends Rose’s daughter, Edna must examine her own feelings. By ignoring the rumors, she may be endangering her family. If she were to shun the woman for no cause, she’d be going against her every instinct. A second death propels Edna into action as she is forced to seek the truth or face the consequences.

Edna Davies is distressed, suffering from the worst toothache she can remember. Her dentist can’t help. He is the prime suspect in a homicide, and his office has been sealed off as the crime scene. His guilt would mean he purposely led Edna into a trap, an act of betrayal she will not accept. As she attempts to learn the truth, she stumbles into a web of intrigue dating back ten years. With the help of a little stray terrier, she finds her answers, but nearly loses her life in the process.

As Edna Davies leaves the new fitness club in town, she discovers one of the instructors hiding in her car. Her willingness to help the young woman throws Edna into the vortex of domestic abuse, ambition and business sabotage. Problems escalate when her best friend, geocaching in an old cemetery, stumbles upon the body of the stowaway’s husband—not yet buried, because he’s not yet cold. When her friend becomes the prime suspect in his murder, Edna marshals all the resources of small-town friendships and gossip to get to the truth.