Lily Bard has settled in the small town of Shakespeare, Arkansas, and set herself up as a a housekeeper and odd-jobber. She is happy with her quiet life since it has allowed her to escape a horrible experience she had while living in Memphis.

Things quickly get exciting when one evening she comes across the body of her former landlord after seeing someone dump the body among a series of garbage bags. She quickly makes an anonymous phone call to the police to report the incident, but she is hoping to avoid any involved interaction because of her past.

Because of her job, Lily finds herself looking to the people around the town trying to figure out who might have killed the landlord. There is no shortage of interesting characters living nearby, including an alcoholic handyman from a local church, a young woman who is having a lot of fun with just about every guy in town, and a number of others.

Lily does find herself getting closer to Marshall, her martial arts sensei. He is going through a nasty divorce, and the two of them are finding comfort in their shared interests.

Similarly, Lily also starts to find that Claude, the police chief, is not necessarily someone she needs to keep at a distance. He could actually turn out to be a friend.

This was a quick and fun, light mystery. I really found myself enjoying it as much as a like the Aurora Teagarden series by the same author. With that said, Lily reminds me a lot more of Kinsey Millhone from Sue Grafton's popular ABC series. I am really looking forward to future books in the series.