Claudia, a handwriting expert, is talked into doing a favor for a friend/ex-lover. Zebediah asks her to go pick up his ex-wife Madeleine Maynard's manuscript on serial killers, which she was working on before she died -- and to conduct an interview on the serial killer Roxanne Becker, with whom Maynard was preparing to meet. Claudia agrees, figuring it will be a off-the-plane, on-the-plane mission to Portland that shouldn't take more than two or three days.

She arrives to find that Zebediah has made arrangements to stay at Madeleine's house, where she meets the housekeeper Melva and a group of students -- Maddie's Maniacs -- with various personal and psychological issues. Madeleine, Claudia learns, would put them in highly stressful situations to see how the weak would survive around the strong.

She also learns that Madeleine didn't die of natural causes. She was murdered.

Of course, Claudia is compelled to dig deeper.

Written Off by Sheila Lowe is a very intriguing read that mystery lovers should enjoy. Fast moving and never dull, it kept my attention to the end. Of course, I speculated as to who the culprit was -- and called it wrong.

Cheers to Lowe for a novel so excellently written.