Lorna Barrett stirs things up quite a bit in this 15th Booktown Mystery. The story opens as Tricia Miles and Police Chief Grant Baker witness a big white pickup truck run down Marshall Cambridge after both men propose to Tricia within 15 minutes of each other. When police discover Marshall is Eugene Chandler, and in Witness Protection, Tricia feels betrayed since he never told her, even when proposing.

While Tricia wants to find out who killed Marshall, she is up to the neck with other obligations, including helping her sister Angelica, recovering from foot surgery, and working with the Chamber of Commerce to recruit someone to fill the vacant Chamber Presidency position. As if life weren’t complicated enough, Becca Chandler walks into Tricia’s bookstore, Haven’t Got a Clue, and introduces herself as Marshall’s ex-wife. Becca is a ‘world-famous tennis player,’ now retired, and the executor of Marshall’s estate.

The next event that overwhelms Tricia is a fire that destroys her nephew’s home, displacing Antonio, his pregnant wife Ginny, and their daughter, Sofia, especially since the fire is declared arson set by persons unknown. Chief Baker poses the question, “who’s got it in for” your family?  He speculates that Tricia’s murdered boyfriend, her close call with a vehicle and now, and her nephew’s home set afire are reasons to cause concern as he reassures her he will protect her.

Ms. Barrett creates an engaging read and carefully plotted mystery while she updates readers with the supporting cast she so carefully develops to support primary characters. These visits to Stoneham are typically heartwarming.  However, the resolution to the murder and mayhem in this novel is entirely unexpected and a complete surprise. The title, A Deadly Deletion, is unusually prescient.