A Heavenly Death

Frank’s rich client Morris Gross firmly believes he had an out-of-body experience and went to heaven, where he met his dead mother. She makes the startling statement that somebody killed her—that she didn’t die a natural death as everyone assumed.

Morris freely shares his story with a polite but skeptical Frank May. If that isn’t strange enough, Morris soon joins his mother—thanks to the bullet from a murderer's pistol. Now Frank has to deal with the estate of a murder victim, who may have been killed by someone who also dispatched his late mother. He also has to deal with the sometimes greedy, and always eccentric, heirs to Morris's fortune. Led by the free-living nephew Sebastian, the family confounds Frank and tests his patience, all while he strives to uncover the truth about the mother's death . . . so he can solve the mystery of her son’s murder. It may be just one loose thread too many for the lawyer-turned-reluctant-detective to spin together into a fabric that makes sense.

Law professor Lawrence Friedman's latest novel is in the series The Frank May Chronicles, from Quid Pro Books. Previous mysteries in the series include The Book Club Murder, Death of a One-Sided Man, Who Killed Maggie Swift?, An Unnatural Death, and Death of a Wannabe.