Five Days, Five Dead: A China Bohannon Novel (China Bohannon Book #5)

China Bohannon and her dog are enjoying a peaceful, if boring, winter day when a gentleman bursts into the Doyle & Howe Detective Agency wishing to engage her services as a detective. His fiancée’s sister has been kidnapped and a substantial ransom is demanded. There’s just one problem. The client thinks it’s possible he’s being bamboozled because events don’t quite add up.

The client? None other than Sepp Amsel, a fabulously successful gambling hall and saloon-keeper entrepreneur, who is about to become the bridegroom in the most public wedding ever to take place in wild and woolly Spokane, Washington.

With funds running a little short at the Doyle & Howe Detective Agency, China can’t resist getting involved, especially since a friend has recommended her services to Amsel. However, the clock is ticking. The ransom is due on Wednesday and it’s already Monday. China’s investigation begins with the closest thing to a witness she has, the prospective bride. With no good answers to her questions, she, too, starts to wonder if Sepp Amsel’s mail-order bride is not quite what she seems.

It isn’t long until murder becomes part of the equation. First a bellhop, then a tailor. Who will be next? China had better find out soon, before she, too, becomes targeted for murder.