Former probation and child welfare officer Mavis Davis wants to prove she can succeed as a PI. When her young associate takes on the case of a missing teenager, she reluctantly agrees to spend a couple of days searching for the girl.

The defendant in the murder of plaintiffs' attorney Phillip Parker hires criminal defense attorney, Sandra Salinsky, to handle the case. Salinsky and her mother, Erma Townley, are law partners as well as sparing partners, pretty much different as night and day. Since the decedent was Erma's best friend, the case becomes more complicated than it first appears. Although the defendant claims she's innocent, Sandra soon learns there were millions of reasons to kill Parker, and not all of them were about money. To make matters worse, Edgar Saul, the prosecutor from hell, is assigned to the case. Sandra and Erma put their heads together to try to figure out who really killed Parker, but it seems everyone has a different story of the events on the night of the murder. One thing is certain, someone stole the victim's watch and ring, which could turn a murder into a capital murder, a death penalty offense. Sandra has to find the killer before her client is indicted and tried for capital murder. Before the case is over, Sandra risks everything to solve a crime that leads into the very pillars of Galveston society. She puts herself in danger to capture a killer who will take no chances in making her the next victim.

Mavis Davis, a likable, new-to-the-job, private investigator, not only has one of the wackiest office staffs in mystery fiction, but also goes about solving her first crime in her own, independent, highly interesting way.



When greasy-spoon cafe owner Carl Singleton shows up wanting to hire Mavis to solve the murder of one of his waitresses, Doris Jones, a woman with whom he has fallen in love, Mavis reluctantly takes the job especially when Carl confesses that all the other private investigators in Houston have turned him down. But, facts are facts, and Mavis has to face the fact that she has bills to pay that serving legal papers won't cover.



Though the Houston Police Department, including Mavis' boyfriend Sgt. Ben Sorensen, get in her face and try to discourage her, Mavis dives head first into the case. What she learns is, there is scandal deep in the heart of Texas. She only hopes she can uncover it before it's too late for her.