Leave it to Claire Malloy, owner of the Book Depot in
Farberville, to start out having tea with retired
schoolteacher Miss Emily Parchester and end up
investigating a murder. An avant-garde artist who moved
into a house on Willow Street has the whole neighborhood
up in arms. His "interactive art," complete with a nearly
nude model and a coffin in the front yard, is attracting a
mob of noisy gawkers. Irate residents are worried about
declining property values. The local mystery writer cannot
meet her deadlines with the constant clatter. And when the
artist's estranged wife rolls up in a limo and announces
to one and all that she intends to have him committed to a
mental institution, all of Farberville is in a dither. But
before the night is out, even stranger things happen: the
volatile artist's house goes up in smoke, a dead body is
found inside the coffin, the artist is promptly arrested
for murder...and Claire Malloy, devoted amateur sleuth
that she is, starts snooping where she doesn't belong.