Toni can’t believe her dreams are gone, but also can’t believe Scott killed himself and begs the police to investigate his death further.  Detective Black assures Toni all leads have been followed and the police are satisfied Scott killed himself.  Not wanting to wallow in her grief, Toni girds herself and begins to follow-up several leads; after several close calls of her own she knows that Scott was murdered and that if she doesn’t figure out who did it soon, she will be joining Scott, just not the way they originally planned. 

Toni is very suspicious of Scott’s brother Brian who showed up just before the wedding. Brian has announced his plans to contest Toni’s claim on Scott’s estate since they were not yet married. He also has some disturbing secrets of his own and seems to be everywhere Toni is, as if he was following her. Scott’s best friend and attorney Mark and Toni’s best friend Jill, who was married to Scott’s partner, are also there at every turn; Toni can’t believe how lucky she is to have such close friends, or is she?

As Toni learns each one’s secrets in turn she comes to realize she can only trust her instincts, and after one of her realtors is murdered at a meeting Toni was supposed to take, she’s not even sure she can trust herself.

There is a lot of plot in Deed to Death (originally published as an ebook on Amazon) with a lot of characters, but the characters are not well-enough developed to make any of it seem real.  Neither Scott’s nor Toni’s pasts and family situations is revealed until a good way into the book; while some of the information revealed helps Toni solve Scott’s murder, the basics earlier (other than Toni throwing her mother’s wedding gift against the wall) would have made it easier to understand Toni and her motives. 

Jill and Mark don’t seem real, more like window-dressing friends, and it’s easy to forget that Jill is married to someone else, even though it doesn’t appear something is going on between Jill and Mark.  The solution to Scott’s murder is routine and not much of a surprise, though there are a couple of connections readers may not guess.  There is one final shock for Toni and it is hard to gauge why she reacts the way she does given what is known about her and what this new information means for her and her future.                                         

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry