leave it to Claire Malloy, devoted amateur sleuth and owner of the Book Depot in Farberville, to start out having tea and end up investigating a murder. When Zeno Grogias, an avant-garde artist, moves into town, the whole neighborhood is up in arms. His "interactive art," complete with a nearly nude model and a coffin in the front yard, is attracting a mob of noisy gawkers.

Bu Zeno's local reputation suffers a much worse blow when his estranged wife storms into town to have him committed to a mental hospital. and before the night is out, even stranger things happen: the volatile artists' house goes up ion smoke, a dead body is found inside the coffin, and the artist is promptly arrested for murder.
Now Clair starts snooping where she doesn't belong to become the busybody who finds the real killer.