Go Close Against the Enemy

In their knockout debut set in Delphi, Georgia, So Dear to Wicked Men, husband-and-wife restaurant owners Nick and Julia Lambros were forced into the roles of amateur sleuths when a patron died eating one of their breakfasts. But now the Oracle Café is facing another problem: an audit from the IRS.

As if that weren't frustrating enough, Nick and Julia soon become embroiled in more serious trouble. A young acquaintance of Julia's comes to the two for help when her life erupts in controversy. April Folsom, barely more than a girl, and her husband, Davon, are grieving the death of their stillborn son. But this simple tragedy is complicated when the congregation of their small-town church becomes divided over the issue of whether April and Davon can bury their son in the church cemetery, for the congregation is predominantly white, like April, and Davon is black.

Nick an Julia, along with their close friend, the genteel and "very" senior citizen Miss Alma Rayborn, attend the funeral and burial, which is where April's real troubles begin. Deacon Walter Fry, one of the church's leaders, leads a protest at the cemetery, and in front of all the mourners, April threatens Fry with a gun. Three day later Fry is found dead, and April finds herself charged with murder.

The capable, charming, and popular Nick and Julia, along with Miss Alma and Nick's cousin Spiros, take to sleuthing once again in order to help this young woman clear her name.