Eye of the Storm — Marcia Muller

Private eye Sharon McCone is lured away from San Francisco to what she thinks will be a weekend "busman's holiday." Her sister Patsy has invited her to Appleby Island, once the home of an agricultural tycoon. With his heirs long gone, the rich man's decrepit Victorian mansion is being converted into a bed-and-breakfast inn.

No sooner does the restoration begin than strange events begin to occur. First the workers walk off the site, claiming to have seen the ghost of a legendary, long-dead hermit. Countless acts of vandalism take place. Soon after Sharon arrives, she sees evidence of fraud-why should this carefully capitalized project be running out of money?

But there's little time for theorizing; several incidents escalate into violence and death. And severe winds indicate the coming of a major hurricane. Sharon, herself the target of a vengeful and murderous act, realizes she's walked into the eye of a storm.