The Mother Shadow — Melodie Johnson Howe

Maggie Hill just turned thirty-five and doesn't have much to show for it save a short-lived writing career and a broken marriage. Things don't get any better when her latest temporary employer, the wealthy Ellis Kenilworth, puts a bullet through his head, leaving Maggie to carry out the freshly written, shocking codicil to his will. The surviving Kenilworths, it appears, have more on their minds then grieving.

Enter Claire Conrad - a brilliant detective whose reasoning is as elegant as her attire. Maggie and Claire team up and, with a little help from Claire's sexy butler, discover some dirty linen and more than one skeleton in the Kenilworth family closet.