Spring is in full swing in lakefront Button Cove, and Jacqueline is embracing her new life-her friends, her new home, the crones down the street, and especially the detective with a hot-Viking vibe. It's not half bad, considering the fact that she has the bickering literary characters of Mrs. Hudson (Sherlock's landlady) and the dour, creepy housekeeper Mrs. Danvers from Rebecca "helping" her to run the bookshop, and her nemesis Egala Stone is opening her own store down the block.

And then there's the handsome new undertaker-er, mortician-who's taken over the town funeral parlor and who has all the women ga-ga over him-including Jacqueline's friends. Things get a little weird when Detective Massermey's daughter seeks out help from Jacqueline, but surely she can handle that...right?

But when an old book falls off the shelf, signaling the arrival of yet another literary character Jacqueline has to deal with, and strange accidents and thefts begin to happen in Button Cove, Jacqueline once again finds herself in a big, fat mess.