big sur (calif.)

Reuniting in Big Sur to honor a decades-old pact to throw each other living "funerals," celebrations to remind themselves life is worth living--and living well--five friends find their pact upended when one of them reveals a shocking secret.

"Ellie Sokoloff is attending Ventana Ranch School in Big Sur because she hopes that the wide-open setting will cure her claustrophobia and she was delighted to find Eliza Hart, her childhood friend, also in attendance. But Eliza has changed and for no apparent reason starts spreading rumors about Ellie, until one day she is found dead--now Ellie must find out what happened to her one-time best friend, and who killed her, not least because she herself is everybody's chief suspect"--Provided by publisher.

"Ellie Sokoloff is attending Ventana Ranch School in Big Sur because she hopes that the wide-open setting will cure her claustrophobia and she was delighted to find Eliza Hart, her childhood friend, also in attendance. But Eliza has changed and for no apparent reason starts spreading rumors about Ellie, until one day she is found dead--now Ellie must find out what happened to her one-time best friend, and who killed her, not least because she herself is everybody's chief suspect"--Provided by publisher.

Soon after Nancy, Bess, and George check into their cottage at Opa Tourist lodge, they discover the popular tourist retreat is a hotbed of deception and crime.