Dormant Lies (Victorian Mansion Flower Shop Mystery, #21)

It's a sunny spring day in Turtle Cove, Washington, and florist Kaylee Bleu is making a special delivery to the recently renovated Lily of the Valley Inn. It's not only beautiful bouquets she's dropping off, though. She and her new boyfriend, handsome handyman Reese Holt, are also checking in his family, who traveled from California to visit Orcas Island -- and meet Kaylee -- for the first time. However, Kaylee's nerves about making a good impression quickly take a backseat when they arrive at the converted Victorian house and discover that proprietor Natalie Parker has been enduring a host of suspicious mishaps.

Although cheery and hospitable herself, the young innkeeper has some personal baggage -- namely her aunts and uncle, none of whom share her mother, Ellen's, composed demeanor. Ellen's squabbling siblings seem to only agree on one thing: that Natalie should never have been allowed to buy their childhood home. But has one of them been wreaking havoc on her business venture?

Natalie's Aunt Marlene seems to harbor the most resentment about the inn, insisting that the estate's finances were handled without care. But in a shocking turn of events, the cantankerous woman is found dead, killed with Ellen's garden shears. Ellen skyrockets to the top of the sheriff's suspect list, but neither Natalie nor Kaylee is convinced that she had a hand in Marlene's murder. But if she didn't, then who did?

Despite being booked solid with Reese and his family's vacation activities, Kaylee makes time to unpack the case's confusing details. As she follows dubious clues off the beaten path, her investigation guides her on a frightening expedition to some of Orcas Island's most desolate areas. Can she trip up the murderer before it's too late -- or will Kaylee's journey end in her own downfall?