The third instalment of Laura Alden's PTA Mystery series sees Beth Kennedy, secretary of the Tarver Elementary School PTA and children's bookstore owner sleuthing away to solve the murder of a customer. Amy Jacobson died of bee stings, but Beth finds this suspicious as Amy was extremely wary of going outside and it seems early for bees to have been out in Wisconsin. Although Beth didn't know Amy well, she knew enough of her to know some of her habits from making regular book deliveries to her house, and she wants to do what she can to solve this mystery, especially since the police don't seem interested.

Unfortunately, Beth seems to have alienated the local police chief, but she doesn't know what she's done to rub him the wrong way. Every effort she makes to extend the proverbial olive branch ends up making things worse. He sees her efforts to find closure in an acquaintance's death as meddling in a closed police investigation (at best) or proving him incompetent (at worst).

Beth's problems don't stop there, though. She's also managing the PTA's spring Senior Story Project, which pairs a student with a resident of the Sunny Rest Assisted Living facility. The students will write up the residents' stories in a book that will be sold as a PTA fund-raiser. The PTA vice-president, Claudia, Beth's nemesis, is determined to undermine the project and point out all of Beth's shortcomings to the rest of the PTA team.

Once the project gets underway, one of the residents presents another puzzle to Beth. Her son gets paired up with Maude whose great-niece Kelly died under controversial circumstances many years ago. Maude, who knows that Beth has a reputation for poking around and solving mysteries, asks Beth to figure out once and for all what happened to Kelly.

And, in the meantime, Beth's boyfriend Evan is showing signs of getting serious. But is Beth ready for the next step? They've been dating for quite awhile, and he's met the family. She knows she needs to either commit or let him know that this isn't working, but she just isn't sure... yet. Which way will she go?

Book Summary

Good thing Beth Kennedy likes to multi-task. As a PTA secretary, children’s bookstore owner, and single mom, Beth has to work hard to schedule time for sleuthing…

Beth is excited about the spring PTA project—the Senior Story Session, which pairs elderly residents of Sunny Rest Assisted Living with Tarver Elementary students to produce a book that the PTA can sell as a fundraiser.

But her enthusiasm is dampened when she discovers one of her regular customers at the bookstore, Amy Jacobson, has died from bee stings. What are bees doing out so unseasonably early in Wisconsin—and why wouldn’t Amy, who was deathly allergic, have taken greater care to avoid them?

Now it’s up to Beth to get the buzz on who used killer bees to send Amy Jacobson to her eternal rest…  

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