Bones and Roses (The Cypress Bay Mysteries)

An amateur sleuth attracts the right clients, the wrong boyfriends—and a kinky killer—in this cozy mystery by New York Times–bestselling author Eileen Goudge.
 
After wrecking her real estate career in a booze-fueled blowout, Cypress Bay property manager and recovering alcoholic Tish Ballard thought she had put her past behind her. But when she opens an old trunk, a bequest from an anonymous benefactor, she finds it filled with bones and roses.
 
Suddenly Tish is plunged into a murder case that dates back to her childhood. Pitted against her high school crush, homicide detective Spence Breedlove, she finds herself in jeopardy—in more ways than one.
 
Can Tish unmask a killer before the man who broke her heart puts her behind bars or, worse, she becomes a corpse herself?
 
Author Nora Roberts raves that Eileen Goudge “writes like a house on fire”—and with Bones and Roses, the first book in the Cypress Bay Mysteries, the New York Times–bestselling author of Garden of Lies delivers a suspenseful plot, memorable characters, and delectable touches of romance.
 
Bones and Rosesis the 1st book in the Cypress Bay Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.