Death of a Dunwoody Matron: A Southern Mystery

2005 Tradepaper reprint. Fifth in the Sheila Travis Mysteries. What does a Dunwoody matron wear to a funeral? Her black tennis dress. It's no joke, however, when the funeral is given for your high school buddy's wife, and she has been brutally murdered. Sheila Travis, successful corporate executive and attractive fortyish widow, has met Yvonne Delacourt once, at a party. Yvonne is stunning, ambitious -- and intensely disliked. Under the local residents' gracious veneer of Southern hospitality, Sheila senses their seething antagonism to young Mrs. Delacourt. When Yvonne is found stabbed to death, the police focus on her husband, Walt, as the most likely suspect. Sheila sets out to clear the pal of her youth by finding out more about those Dunwoody residents who loathed the alluring victim. The spirited search reveals dark secrets more carefully kept than the manicured lawns of this exclusive enclave -- from a respected matron's double life, to a retired couple's vile secret, to an arrogant gardener who has no gardening tools. But the real shocker comes when Sheila, following lurid hints about Yvonne's slippery past, arrives in the dead woman's Florida hometown. Horrific discoveries reveal a soul-chilling evil and elicit unexpected sympathy for Yvonne's killer. Back in Dunwoody, Sheila finds her emotions stirred by an undeniably appealing man with a disturbing connection to the crime. Her maverick investigation startlingly reveals that the biggest secret of all was Yvonne's.