Electric Blue (A Jane Kelly Mystery) - Tapa dura

When aspiring PI Jane Kelly is asked by the son of Lake Chinook's wealthiest and strangest families to convince its senile matriarch to give up control of the family fortune, she is faced with a murderous free-for-all as each of the family members scrambles to get their hands on the money.

Some days are just weird city. Take today. Jane Kelly, thirty something ex-bartender and current process server, is dutifully putting in slave-labour hours working for Dwayne Durbin, local "information specialist" (i.e., private investigator), and on the road to becoming a P.I. herself. Next thing she knows, she's socializing with eccentric rich people who have a penchant for going crazy and/or dying in spectacularly mysterious ways. A little back story...Jane's usual motto in life is never trust anyone too handsome. But she's willing to make an exception when Jasper "Jazz" Purcell, son of Lake Chinook's wealthiest and most famously eccentric family, comes to ask for her help. Sexy, loaded, and charming, the guy's a real catch. It seems the Purcell matriarch, Orchid, is in her eighties and losing her marbles. And since she controls the family fortune, that could be a bad thing. What Jazz needs is somebody from the outside to convince his grandmother to give up control. Somebody neutral, somebody...with a dog. Orchid likes dogs. And that's how Jane and her pug, The Binkster, end up at Estate Creep-O-Rama, babysitting a dotty old lady, surrounded by a clan so hostile they make "Survivor" look like a hug-fest. From what Jane can tell, the Purcell family all want Orchid's money; they all hate each other (but not as much as they hate Jane); and they're all hiding some pretty big secrets. And when Orchid turns up in a pool of blood on Jane's watch, the free-for-all has just begun. Diving into the Purcell family history leads Jane on some hair-raising twists and turns through mental illness, greed, deception, betrayal, and lies - including, but not limited to several mysterious deaths, two car accidents, a depressed guy who paints knives, one creepy playhouse, a family member packed off to an asylum, illegitimate birth, and a flamboyant prodigal daughter with great legs and her sights set on Dwayne, who seems only too happy to play along. And when Jane finds the second body, it seems weird city is about to get even weirder...and a lot more deadly...