Josephine Stuart, a fifty-year-old widow, is blessed and cursed with an overactive curiosity, a strong sense of right and wrong and a willingness to put herself on the line for her friends. Josephine has been hired to paint murals in the secluded Munger Mansion, located at the top of a wooded mountain. Certain local reprobates have their reasons for wanting the Mungers to leave their new home. Accidents, fires and the death of a forest ranger have everyone on edge. Josephine's curiosity drives her down the mountain, into the world of illegal activities and nefarious characters. Her situation become dire—no way to escape. One captor has a knife, the other has a rifle. Can she save herself and her friends?Secure the Ranch is the first in a seven-book series. The cozy mystery stories take place on the California Central Coast. They are short on murder and blood and long on sleuthing, adventure and fun.