Secret Lives (Secret Lives Mysteries, #1)

Ethel Fiona Crestwater is used to being underestimated. At seventy-five years old, she looks like someone's grandma, though she's never married or had children; petite and a bit frail, she's not a threat to anyone. Or is she? When someone shoots one of her boarders dead in front of the boardinghouse she runs for government agents, Ethel springs into action, much to the surprise of her distant cousin, Jesse, who has recently come to stay with her while he attends university. As he watches her photograph the crime scene, conceal evidence, and speed-dial the Secret Service director, Jesse realizes there's much more to Ethel than appearances suggest.

But when Jesse is assaulted and the gym bag full of cash Ethel had hidden is stolen from the basement, the pair decide it's time to launch their own unofficial investigation. With no one to trust but each other, these double-first-cousins-twice-removed form an unlikely bond and learn that the only thing truly worth risking your life for is family.