Claire and CC have been neighbors, and best friends, since they were five.  While CC has settled into domestic bliss, and motherhood to seven children, with her gorgeous and successful husband, Claire has yet to find that special somebody, despite the efforts of all who know her.  Could the new sheriff be her special somebody?  Does she want him to be? The sparks and injuries fly as Claire and the new sheriff both try to solve the suspicious death of Mr. Johnson a born and bred resident of their small town, and all-around grump.  

Mr. Johnson was the abrasive and crotchety bank manager who was almost universally disliked.  But everybody is still shocked to learn he was found dead in his house under suspicious circumstances.  With anybody who has ever met him, except his secretary, being a suspect CC and Claire decide the new sheriff doesn’t know enough about small towns, and the people who live there to solve the case.  They begin asking questions, and generally annoying the sheriff, but one person points the finger at another until there are no answers, just more questions.  With lots of reasons to want Mr. Johnson dead, what finally caused somebody to kill him?  Could somebody they know really be a killer? 

Claire’s inability to keep her thoughts to herself cause hurt feelings, hilarity, and bodily harm wherever she goes, but that won’t stop CC and Claire from trying to find who in their small town might be a murderer.  Nor do the sheriff’s hopefully idle threats, and pointed statements, to keep out of his investigation.  As far as Claire is concerned, he doesn’t have much of an investigation.  He even suspected CC’s husband and Claire herself all because of denied loan applications.  Everybody knows Mr. Johnson denies all loan applications, well everybody from their small town does anyway.

To make matters worse every time Claire and the sheriff are in the same area, he ends up injured.  She didn’t mean to hit him with her car, or slap him, or hit him with a door, or feed him dog biscuits, or run over his foot, or … well you get the idea.  A smart person would avoid the walking hazard that is Claire, but the sheriff keeps turning up wherever Claire goes, even to her weekly line dancing night.  Is it a coincidence, or something more?  With all the craziness going on, murder, an attacking newfoundland, a litter of newborn puppies, and CC’s oldest child Nell abandoning them to go away to college Claire doesn’t have time to think about her attraction to the new sheriff, or how she feels about it. 

When Claire’s boss, an inept recent high school graduate, somehow manages to find the paperwork showing Mr. Johnson left five million dollars to somebody that nobody in town has ever heard of Claire is sure they are on the right track.  However, tracking down somebody nobody has ever heard of is harder than it sounds.  A lucky break or two lead Claire and CC to Nell’s new college and the young Jamie, who has never heard of the crotchety bank manager who just made her a multi-millionaire.  Jamie is sure it is a mistake, but Claire and CC are sure it’s not.

Trying to solve the puzzle of why a frugal grump who never seemed to care about anyone would leave so much money to somebody he never met, lead Claire and CC to the conclusion that maybe Mr. Johnson had cared about somebody once, and maybe that somebody had a child.  Following the breadcrumb trail, and making some assumption-based leaps, Claire is sure they are on the right path.  However, when Jamie goes missing the stakes and Claire’s guilt are higher than ever.

When Claire thinks she knows where the missing Jamie is being kept the race to save her before there is another victim puts Claire and CC in harm’s way.  If the murderer doesn’t kill them the sheriff might.  He has been very clear on wanting them to stay out of his investigation.  But that won’t stop Claire from going on a dangerous rescue mission.  Will they be in time to save Jamie?  Will they be able to save themselves?  Will the new sheriff really arrest them?  Did they just solve the biggest case their small town has ever seen?