Booked for Murder: 5

Elise Danton and her employer, Alex Winston, did all the work at Hatteras West, an inn in the Blue Ridge Mountains having a replica of the lighthouse at Cape Hatteras. The inn consisted of two buildings, but they were not at full occupancy. A guard employed to watch over an exhibit of an emerald is found killed by a lighthouse letter opener. It is also discovered that the real emerald had been replaced by a fake. Alex and Elise and another couple go out to eat at a new restaurant in town, Monet's Garden. The prices are high and there is a ruckus going on in the kitchen. The meals are dreadful. The chef has quit. The owner tears up the bill and gives the foursome a voucher for four free meals at a future date. Elise is, apparently, beautiful. She call her beauty a genetic wind-fall. She is embarassed to admit she once entered a beauty contest in order to obtain funds to continue in school. An ex-cop, now a security man, believes that when one of Alex's guests is shot while jogging the assault is intentional. Alex decides to conduct an informal investigation, too. Alex Winston is a pleasant main character. He seems like the sort of person one would like to know. When Alex learns from a surveyor that the lighthouse may not be on his property he is made anxious. The mystery is wrapped up when the true identities of the surveyor and a muffin lady are discerned.