Daisy Bateman Bücher

"It's autumn on the Sonoma Coast, and Claudia Simcoe is sure that the gourmet harvest dinner will wipe away any memories of the unpleasantness last summer. But then the newly installed video surveillance system shows local lawyer Clark Gowan removing something from a hidden compartment in the marketplace walls... and Claudia's visit to his office the next day reveals that he's dead, shot with one of his own vintage guns. The town's new police chief wants to know about the compartment, but she's more interested in the fact that Julie Muller, cheesemaker and one of Claudia's tenants, broke in to Gowan's office the night before he was killed. Concerned for her friend, and also about the revelation that Gowan, who was involved in the sale of the marketplace building, was not entirely on the up and up, Claudia is determined to learn more. The building's Prohibition-era history offers some clues, and the victim's illegal legal work turns out to have affected a number of people in town. Claudia still has a marketplace to run, and she is more confused than anyone when it comes to her relationship with her neighbor. Still, Claudia thinks she's getting a hand on this investigating thing, until another gruesome death, secrets from her building's past, and a tractor chase make her wonder if she's really ready to reap what she's sown."--Amazon.com

Claudia Simcoe has left the tech world of San Francisco to start a new, quiet life in the peaceful coastal town of San Elmo Bay. Now she owns a market specializing in artisanal, locally-made goods. But then Lori Roth, one of her market’s vendors, is strangled to death with a wire. And all of a sudden San Elmo stops seeming so peaceful. Especially when suspicion for the murder falls upon Claudia. Things don’t get any simpler when a second victim turns up. The body count is rising, and Police Chief Lennox thinks Claudia’s the killer. There’s friction between her and her weirdo neighbor. Lori’s past yields some worrisome questions. A massive pickle jar seems to have played a role in the murder. And as if things weren’t complicated enough, Officer Derek Chambers, Chief Lennox’s new hire, is pretty cute.