Trucks, Strangers, and Stiffs — Margaret Franklin Zadow

Four men are killed in small River City, Nebraska, and trucker Shawn Mitchell is blamed for all of them. He's told to not leave town. He finds a temporary home in a boarding house owned by a religious older woman. Also living there are three other religious people and one schizophrenic. An attorney is appointed for him. He's unhappy when he sees that this attorney is a woman who is anybody's idea of an old maid. However, underneath her disguise lives beautiful Merry, a young woman Shawn greatly admires. While Shawn and Merry attempt to clear his name and solve the crimes, they fall in love and then nearly lose their lives.