Murder in a Nice Neighborhood — Lora Roberts

VAGRANT DEATH HITS HOME IN PEACEFUL PALO ALTO.

While vagabond writer Liz Sullivan lies innocently sleeping in her '69 VW microbus, someone parks a dead body under it. His name was Pigpen Murphy, a vagrant whom Liz shared some unpleasant words with just hours before the murder.

Setup? Maybe. But the police figure they've got their woman--unless she can provide them-with a better alternative. Not easy for a determined loner like Liz, who has few friends and apparently one very dangerous enemy. Luckily, her friends are more numerous than she suspected: the shrewd old ladies in her writing workshop, a charming real estate developer, and maybe even handsome detective Paul Drake--if he gets over thinking she's the killer.

Yet none of them knows Liz quite as well as they think--and her past is closing in with a vengeance....