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Attending the San Celina Mid-State Fair, Benni Harper's enjoyment of the fair's activities are put on hold after the theft of a quilt intended for a special exhibition and the discovery of a corpse in the Piebald Family Farm Exhibit.

Roy Valois has been given four months to live. Curious, he hacks into the New York Times to read his impending obituary and notices a discrepancy in the information about his deceased wife Delia, who Roy believes died accidentally. As he digs around, Roy realizes Delia led a secret life. The more he learns, the less he feels he knew his wife at all. And now the clock is ticking on his time to learn the truth.

Attending the National Association of Black Journalists conference, reporter Alex Powell discovers publishing bigwig Everett Carson, who was about to be toasted as journalist of the year, has been murdered. Ev's three biggest competitors are the obvious suspects. But as Alex investigates, she discovers that Ev's list of enemies reads like the phone book.

Fictional columnist James Qwilleran has finally finished his book showcasing the colorful stories related to him by residents of Moose County.

One day in 1952, the strangled body of 10-year-old Cathy Lake is discovered in a public park. A homeless suspect, Albert Jay Smalls, is arrested and held for interrogation. Now, Officers Norman Cohen and Jack Pierce have only 24 hours to make the sullen young man talk before he's released. How far are they willing to push him to get a confession?

When the victim of a murder at a motel turns out to be the wife of a prominent lawyer, the news comes as a thunderclap. People begin looking suspiciously among themselves for the culprit Judge Deborah Knott learns that her cousin has a powerful motive.

The governor of North Carolina has appointed Deborah to a judicial seat in the District Court Division. On her weekends, the fledgling judge has been helping an all-woman building crew complete a home for a needy single mother. Her attempts to gain positive P.R. go awry when her niece is found battered and half-naked in the partially completed home, with Deborah's own bloody hammer lying nearby.

On the North Side in December of 1968, Cassandra Perry feels stifled by her doting granduncle and grandaunt, Woody and Ivy, and longs for a change. She moves into a multiracial commune for free spirits working for the good of humankind. But then something unfathomable happens: the commune is rocked by the discovery of two well-liked activists' mutilated bodies. With Woodie and Ivy backing her up, Cassandra begins to investigate only to find herself falling into the trap of the deadly, political hatchet man.

Cassandra, grandniece to Woodson and Ivy Lisle, is a college student caught up in the highly charged atmosphere of the days following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. When the granddaughter of Woodson and Ivy's friends goes missing, Cassandra is sucked into a dangerous mystery that threatens to expose long-buried secrets and jeopardize the life of anyone who asks too many questions.

Carlotta is eating pizza when two cases are dumped into her denim-clad lap. One will take her into a combat zone of hookers and pimps, the other onto the campus of a wealthy prep school.