At the start of Wright's cute if sometimes hokey third cozy to feature Tahoe Tattler
reporter Elsie “Beanie” MacBean and Cruiser, Beanie's beloved basset hound (after 2006's Sirius About Murder
), Beanie is having a blast celebrating her “Big 5-0” aboard the Dixie Queen
on Lake Tahoe, until Frank and Ivy Diggs's anniversary party disrupts the mood. Ivy, a trophy wife despised by Frank's children, informs her husband she wants a divorce, then disappears and is presumed dead by drowning, though her body's not recovered. Beanie's companion, Sheriff Skip Cassidy, suspects homicide. In the course of her investigation, Beanie interviews Crispin Blayne, a professor researching Tahoe Tessie, the lake's Loch Ness–style monster. While Beanie's attraction to Cris sparks some jealousy from her pal Skip, the real emotional interest lies in the warm relationship between Beanie and her “sleuthhound sidekick,” now equipped with a handy GPS navigator on his collar. (May)
