Reluctant amateur detective Esbeth Walters, in her seventies, must face one of her greatest fears when she goes after con artists who are fleecing residents of rest homes. Stir in law enforcers who hope she stumbles, a death that looks anything like the suicide it was ruled, and the presence of a couple of hit men hired out to the mob and you have a stew that makes the tiny Texas town of Fearing a hotter place than usual for her. But she isn't about...

"Perry's mother and father are busy people ... they're impatient, they're tired, they get cross easily. And they think that only children, like Perry, should be kept busy. On Saturday mornings Perry and her father visit her gran, Honora Lee, at the Santa Lucia rest home, but Gran never remembers them. 'Who is that man?' Honora Lee asks when Perry's father leaves the room. After movement class is abruptly cancelled, Perry is allowed to go to Santa...