Fleeing unsavory doings in her hometown of Charlotte, Jenna Quinn accepts her uncle's invitation to stay with him in small-town Hokes Folly, NC, and help him out in his antiquarian bookstore. Arriving to find her uncle's body crumpled at the base of the staircase between his apartment and the bookstore, Jenna soon learns that she's inherited almost everything her uncle owned: the store and apartment, as well as his not-so-meager savings and the payout from a life insurance policy-- which adds up to more than a million dollars. When a second death cements Jenna's status as the prime suspect, she is determined to sleuth out her uncle's killer.