Verity Hawkes has been hiding out in her B.C. condo and not dealing with the world since the death of her husband two years ago, but when she gets a call from her eccentric aunt’s lawyer back in Ontario to let her know that said aunt’s car was found in the river and she is presumed dead, Verity heads home to clean up the mess and, maybe, solve the mystery.

When she arrives, she finds her aunts business and her beloved Rose Cottage both teetering on the edge of collapse … and then people start turning up dead.

This was an entertaining romp through a lovingly cast and relatively accurate small town rural Ontario. Verity and her Leafy Hollow acquaintances are quirky, opinionated and a lot of fun, and the series of “who dun it’s” , including what really happened to her missing aunt kept me following the clues to the very end.

I enjoyed this story … probably enough to look up the next story. If only to find out what I don’t yet know about Verity’s missing – but almost certainly not dead – aunt.