Steeped in Murder — Linda French

Tea and History...
As far as untenured junior history professor Teodora Morelli is concerned, nobody waits with bated breath for a new, politically correct history of the infamous Confederate general George Pickett's adventures in the Northwest Indian Wars. Nobody, that is, except a wealthy potential patron--maiden-named "Pickett," not coincidentally--and the university president who assigns the project to a most reluctant Teddy Morelli.

Can be a Lethal Combination
But Teddy hasn't even begun when her mentor--the kindly department chairman who was going to help rid her of the dreaded assignment--dies an unseemly and very suspicious death. Soon after, a valuable Chinese tea chest mysteriously vanishes. The suggestion that these events are in any way linked to the Pickett history at first seems as absurd as wacky Uncle Aldo's tale of a tribe of bigfoot monsters in the Seattle area. But Teddy's research into the past--both distant and recent--is dangerously roiling the chilly waters of Puget Sound. And it's bringing a killer with unfinished business into Teddy's unprotected present.