Artist Cherry Tucker has gotten herself a gig designing sets for the drama program at a fancy private school. The somewhat paranoid drama teacher is convinced that someone is going after him and his program. The school is in turmoil. A student committed suicide after a bullying episode, and the school secretary has recently been found dead. Cherry is convinced that the secretary's death is not suicide, and she undertakes investigation. Meanwhile, Cherry is also dealing with relationship drama. Her family is involved in some sort of Hatfied-McCoy style feud with the Branson family, which just so happens to be the step-family of the local sheriff/sort of love interest.

In general, I thought the mystery part of this book was stronger than the interpersonal relationships. I jumped in the middle of this series, so I have missed some earlier events in this family drama. I plan to go back and read earlier books in this series, but I don't expect my sentiments will change. I would enjoy the book more if the balance of mystery and family drama was a bit different: more mystery, less family drama. Cherry is really, really bad at seeing trouble coming. She's like the girl in the horror movie going into the dark basement. We can all see the monster is going to get you! This is a bad idea! Why don't you see it?

One final note: you could not get away with the kind of stuff in a school that Cherry is getting away with. You can't just run around a school after hours. Even if you do have the background check.