The Dame with the Sanibel Sunset Detective — Ron Base

There is nothing like a dame.

Particularly when she's an improbable heroine like Freddie Stayner. Ordinarily, it's her husband, Tree Callister, a private detective on Sanibel Island, off the west coast of Florida, who gets into all the trouble. But Tree is in hospital, just returned from heaven -- or so his pal Todd Jackson believes -- and thus a worried Freddie must take over when trouble arrives.

It comes to the front door in the form of Darlene, a beautiful young woman claiming she's pregnant.

With Tree Callister's child.

Then Darlene's two rough and tough cousins show up looking for her, and they won't take no for an answer. The widow of a Russian oligarch tied to Vladimir Putin -- a widow who also happens to be Tree's first wife -- wants Freddie to meet a rogue warrior named Durango Banderas in New Orleans. A Minnesota lothario tries to seduce her. A Ukrainian hitman wants to kill her. The dashing Durango says he's falling in love with her.

And, on top of everything else, as she attempts to come to terms with her marriage and her life, Freddie must find the object that could change the course of American history.

No big deal for The Dame with the Sanibel Sunset Detective.

If she survives.