Carrie has two young children and is the proud owner of a menagerie of pets. Not only is her life filled with family responsibilities but also she has many friends, including a special police detective, Ted Brodsky.

Carrie works as a self-employed, biofeedback specialist, which involves using equipment that provides information about bodily responses. She helps her clients deal with traumatic events, attention disorders, sleep problems, chronic pain, etc. When Jenny Margolis arrives for her weekly session and gleefully relates how happy she is to attend socialite and charity volunteer Helena Forester's funeral, Carrie is immediately alert and intrigued. She discovers Jenny is an old friend of Helena's stepdaughter, Laurel, who disliked and mistrusted her stepmother.

The newspaper article about Helena's death notes the police are searching for the biker that hit her and left the scene of the crime. After Carrie discovers that her friend Franny is the witness to the crime, she decides to talk to her right away.

Franny is old-fashioned and mannerly, somewhere between seventy and eighty, and owns an antique store. She tells Carrie the crime wasn't a simple hit and run, but a murder. Franny is very afraid the murderer will come after her and is hiding in her home. While Franny receives a threatening package, Carrie invites her to her house for a few days.

Soon, Carrie is actively investigating and contacts Jenny in order to ask more questions. Jenny reluctantly sets up a meeting with Laurel who tells Carrie about her suspicions that Helena murdered her mother years ago, although officially her mother's death is listed as a suicide. Laurel believes that when her father died soon thereafter, Helena doctored his will in order to exclude Laurel and inherit all his money. Carrie finds Laurel sincere and is sympathetic, but thinks the police will view her as their prime suspect as she had both motive and opportunity.

Rather than calling the police with this information, Carrie enlists a promise from Jenny and Laurel to call the police themselves. Instead, Laurel disappears, Jenny denies everything, and Carrie is in trouble again with Ted. To complicate matters further, Carrie receives threats, and when she is actually hurt, everyone suggests she quit her sleuthing, but she is more determined than ever.

The book contains all the ingredients of a good cozy mystery: superlative friends, a cute family, a love interest, numerous shady suspects, and a convoluted and twisting plot. However, the rationale for Carrie to be involved in this particular crime is quite far-fetched. Perhaps Ms. Tesler should consider a better motive for Carrie to embroil herself in a murder investigation other than sheer nosiness, as she endangers not only herself, but also her family and friends for her own self-indulgence.

I do understand the author's dilemma though, because if Carrie didn't snoop, then we wouldn't be provided with such enjoyable entertainment.

--Monica Pope