Rosemary Collins, a clerk at a convenience store in the small central Florida town of Cameron, is shot to death in the process of closing the store for the night. Ellen Kerry learns about the shooting when her daughter, Zoe, receives a call from her editor at the local paper assigning her to investigate
What appears on the surface to be a robbery gone bad, is suspected to be more than that by Sargent Joe Sanchez, the new man in the homicide department.
Ellen has helped the local police by solving murders in the past, often barely avoiding harm to herself. Zoe and Ellen's brother, Max, the local high school coach, both warn her to stay out of it. And Ellen, Master Gardener and garden columnist, assures them that she is doing just that.
But, is she? As she learns more and more about the circumstances of the shooting, she becomes more and more involved, until Zoe convinces Detective Sanchez that she and Ellen have helped before and can help again.
The three put their heads together in what might be considered a rather unorthodox manner and set out to find out what really happened. When two more murders occur and with more suspects than any murder investigation needs, with a button off a suit jacket and the murdered girl's diary, they go full speed ahead until Ellen finds herself In deeper that she ever wanted to be.
