Appraisal for Murder

First in this nine-book series introduces Jolie Gentil as she moves to Great Aunt Madge's Cozy Corner Bed and Breakfast at the Jersey shore. She and her car Jazz are joining Madge's pair of prune-eating dogs--joyful retrievers who just want to make friends. Jolie does not view her move as a retreat from her embezzling ex-husband, just a smart change. She had no idea her life was about to get even more complicated. Jolie finds work as a real estate appraiser, but a low-life named Joe Pedone demands that she repay some of her husband's gambling debts and she runs into Michael Riordan, her high school crush. She's not sure which one is more trouble.

And then there's the body she finds when she appraises Michael's mother's house. Soon the mundane work of appraising real estate and dodging suggestions that she go to the ten-year high school reunion are mixed with calls from reporters, scary suggestions from Pedone, and requests that she help the local busybody with First Presbyterian's social services work.

Jolie balances her fear of Pedone, conviction that Michael is innocent, and sometimes uneasy friendship with long-ago friend Scoobie. She wants to prove both friends innocent, but someone would rather see her dead.