The Case of the Girl Who Didn't Smile

A retired teacher and a baker snoop into the lives of Bottom Ridge residents, the decaying Midwestern rural town where citizens are strangled by secrets. Finding a child's diary in the body cavity of a Toni doll piques Lena Vincenti's interest. Wanting to know what happened to the child accused of arson and murder, Lena and her friend Alice Tricklebank set off on a road trip. The dark secret of the little girl is four decades old. To keep it in the shadows, a woman is killed with a baseball bat. The windows and tires of Lena's pink van are destroyed, and Alice's dive for the ditch prevents a SUV from teaching her to fly. Danger continues to plague both women. Can two women in their sixties fight back even against a gun? But, the town doesn't know Alice Tricklebank reads people. She may flinch at the cruel nicknames they have for each other and be stunned how a town's guilt warps judgment, but she doesn't give up easily. She has her own friendships to preserve and her own secrets to keep.