The Rampant Reaper — Marlys Millhiser

Charlie Greene confronts her wacky extended family and a series of nursing home murders with characteristic good humor literary agent and amateur sleuth Charlie Greene accompanies her mother to her great-great-aunts funeral under great duress. After all, Charlie herself is adopted, and this part of her extended family has never made her feel that welcome. What's worse, its in Myrtle, Iowa, about as far from Charlie's life as a high-powered California literary agent as one could get. But she agrees anyway. How bad could it be?