Murder Passes the Buck (Gertie Johnson Backwoods Adventures)

(first published in 2006) When her neighbor Chester Lampi is shot and killed in his hunting blind, sixty-six-year-old widow Gertie Johnson seizes the opportunity to become a detective. Gertie is abetted (and hindered) in her investigation by her grandson Little Donny, man-hungry best friend Cora Mae, and volunteer bodyguard Kitty. It doesn't help that Chester's death has been ruled an accident by the sheriff of this backwoods community in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Or that Sheriff Blaze Johnson happens to be Gertie's son. Whether it's interrogating neighbors, spying, or impersonating the FBI-not to mention staying one step ahead of Blaze-Gertie will do whatever it takes to solve the case, even when the killer takes aim at her. Praise for the series: "Laugh-out-loud funny" Crimespree Magazine "Fans of Janet Evanovich, imagine Grandma Mazur with a shotgun." Green Bay Press Gazette "One of the most memorable heroines in recent crime fiction." Lansing State Journal