Relative-ly Dead

Genealogist Betts Harvey prides herself on spotlighting missing ancestral links and restoring life to dying branches of family trees. When a client asks her to find an heir for a centuries-old book of herbal recipes and seeds, the outcome is a brutal case of lights out in a cold alley. Someone wants the book badly enough to kill for it. Determined to protect the heirloom, Betts works to expose the murderer with the help of Warren, her retired firefighter boyfriend, and Philly, coffee-break buddy and local mud-run champion. Trouble doubles when police suspect Betts. How does a crime novice keep the law at bay? Betts mixes a few mysterious herbal recipes from her client's compendium, with uncanny results. A precocious goat and a showboat lawyer come between Betts and an arrest, but the real hero is an unhoused friend who rescues Betts and Philly from an assailant during a nighttime, sneak-and-snoop expedition to find evidence. Even as Betts tells herself she is wasting time and ingredients, she concocts new remedies and charms to cope. Can herbal talismans protect Betts from a murderer, one who has her name at the top of a killer to-do list?