Digging up old family dirt can uncover long buried secrets…and a new reason for murder.

North Carolina native Abigail Timberlake, owner of the Den of Antiquity, is quick to dismiss the seller of a hideous old vase—until the poor lady comes hurtling back through the shop window minutes later, the victim of a fatal hit-and-run.

Tall, dark, and handsome Homicide Investigator Greg Washburn—who just happens to be Abby’s boyfriend—is frustrated by conflicting accounts from eyewitnesses. And he’s just short of furious with his ever-lovin’, when he learns it was a valuable Ming vase, and Abby let it vanish from the crime scene. Abby decides she had better find out for herself what happened to the treasure—and to the lady who was dying to get rid of it.

It turns out the victim had a lineage that would make a Daughter of the Confederacy green with envy, and her connection with the historic old Roselawn Plantation makes that a good place to start sleuthing. Thanks to her own mama’s impeccable Southern credentials, Abby is granted an appointment with the board members—but no one gives her permission to snoop. And digging into the long-festering secrets of a proud family of the Old South turns out to be a breach of good manners that could land Abby six feet under in the family plot.