Plot

Shannon Hughes is renovating a Victorian mansion and when a banker is found murdered inside the house, she has to solve the mystery before the renovation becomes a demolition.

Shannon Hughes of Hughes Restoration in Lighthouse Cove, Oregon, volunteers to be the lead in a renovation of a donated Tudor mansion to Sunny Site Housing for a social housing project, her current client and friend, reporter turned crime novelist Macintyre Sullivan, allowing her to take a break working on his house to do so. Mac, Mac's visiting teenaged niece Callie Sullivan, Shannon's assistant Sean Brogans, her best friend Jennifer Hennessey, and her father Pete Hughes are among the many others volunteering their time on the project. Two others volunteering are Jim Hopkins and his teenaged son Elliot Hopkins, who will be the recipients of one of the seven units. While working on the renovation, Mac meets Whitney Sloane, Officer Tommy Sloane's bookstore owning sister who asks him to do a book signing at her store. The mansion donation was negotiated between Sunny Site Housing administrator Marie Bishop and the bank represented by one of their VPs, Dave Drummond. The donation, however, was vehemently opposed by the bank president, Charles Potter, who was able to place a rider in the contract that the renovation has to be completed in three months or else the mansion ownership reverts back to the bank. As Potter's assistant, Patrice Moore, despite having done nothing wrong, is as disliked among this group as Potter. On the first evening of the renovation, Shannon and Mac go by the mansion to find a newly murdered dead body, the victim someone associated with the project. Against Pete's wishes, Shannon, with Mac by her side, decides to help Tommy and Chief Jensen in finding out the identity of the murderer, which will be difficult as they discover that most people associated with the project had the motive and opportunity. They may find that an unusual appraisal of the mansion may be a key to discovering the motive for the murder. Through it all, Shannon and Mac learn more and more about the other, which may further change the balance of their relationship from being more professional to more personal.—Huggo

Shannon Hughes and her father Pete recruit and instruct a small army of local volunteers to renovate a Victorian mansion to provide affordable housing to seven families like Jim Hopkins and his teen son Elliot Hopkins. Branch president Charles Potter openly doubts if his bank board was wise to donate the premises to Sunny Site Housing, managed by Marie Bishop, hence promises to watch the progress and accounts like a hawk and is found murdered after dusk inside the house, when a blue car was noticed leaving, fitting Hopkins. Shannon and crime novelist Macintyre 'Mac' Sullivan, who allowed her to interrupt renovations on his house during the project -which must be completed within tree months or it reverts to the bank- and is visited by nosy kid niece Callie Sullivan, who pushes him to Shannon, creatively complement the work of the police, with suspects ranging from Potter's disliked PA Patrice Moore and his successor, VP Dave Drummond, who negotiated the donation, to Hopkins, and after they get alibis and a second murder occurs, various volunteers and bank staff, including ever-helpful officer Tommy Sloane's sister, bookstore owner Whitney Sloane, while working out dirty tricks concerning the falsified property appraisal.—KGF Vissers