EJ and Willis Pugh aren't one of the more ordinary married couples in Black Cat Ridge, Texas. EJ writes romance novels, Willis washes the dishes. Willis works on the cars, EJ solves local homicides. But the latest murder mystery strikes much too close to home when Willis himself vanishes. EJ isn't sure if her couch potato hubby's disappearance is some kind of mid-life crisis romp or something far, far worse. But she won't rest until she knows for certain the fate of her missing spouse - following Willis' tracks to a corpse, a lovelorn redneck turkey trucker..... and a nasty mess of family secrets that could turn very deadly indeed.

The fifty-something pharmacy manager at the Food Go in Scottsdale, Arizona, Ruthie Kantor Morris enjoys nothing better than dishing dirt with her waitress friend Denise. But sometimes the gossip turns grim...... Harry Stokes is their latest favourite scandal. The elderly gentleman has been coming to Ruthie for male potency hormones ever since his recent marriage to a woman a fraction of his age. But when the old swinger dies abruptly - a victim of lethally misused medicine - his grumbling grown kids point their accusing fingers at the baby bride. Ruthie, however, has her doubts. And a second murder much too close for comfort convinces the inquisitive pharmacist to look for a fatal family secret hidden somewhere in her prescription records.