The crows are cawing when accountant P.J. Benson takes a walk in the woods with her four-month-old Rhodesian Ridgeback. Next comes gun shots. Quickly she returns to her house, ready to call the police, only to find a man dying in her dining room. It's tax season, and she's just started her home-based business. She doesn't have time to devote to solving a murder, but when she becomes the prime suspect, she has no choice. Either someone is breaking into her house and threatening her life, or she's becoming as schizophrenic as her mother.

When P.J. Benson gives a talk at a local library, she hopes to help others—especially the elderly—avoid scams and maybe garner up some good pr for her home-based CPA business. She certainly doesn't expect one elderly woman to hand her a briefcase and ask for help. Soon P.J. is drawn into a blackmail scheme and murder investigation. Within days the body count is rising, people are missing, and P.J. is a prime suspect. To make matters worse, P.J.'s nemesis, Nora Wright, is out of jail and making threats, Detective Wade Kingsley is acting as if their romance is waning, and P.J. may have exposed her six-month-old Rhodesian Ridgeback, Baraka, to a deadly disease. Danger is never far away...as the crow flies.

P.J. Benson knows Sheriff’s Detective Wade Kingsley wouldn’t blow up his own boat to kill his ex-wife and her new husband, Michael Brewster. Sure, Wade wasn’t happy that his ex was taking their six-year-old son, Jason, to live in California, but Wade and Jason were also onboard the boat when it blew up. Wade would never have endangered his son that way. Nevertheless, the investigating detectives consider Wade their prime suspect,and Wade’s ex in-laws loudly accuse him and threaten to file for custody of Jason. Under the circumstances, P.J. is certain this isn’t the right time to tell Wade she’s pregnant, but bouts of morning sickness give her away. Wade is upset by the news. P.J. wonders if it’s because he’s afraid he’ll be put in prison for a double homicide he didn’t commit, or if he’s afraid the new baby will cause P.J. to become schizophrenic, as was the case with her mother. Even P.J. is worried about that. Although Wade doesn’t want her playing detective, P.J. soon discovers that Michael Brewster wasn’t as great a guy as everyone thought. But did anyone hate the man enough to kill him?