What do a minstrel, a mattress, and a murder have in common?

Mexicali Rose—Mex to her friends—is on hiatus at her whimsical Queen Anne Victorian home in the Hudson River Valley. When the leading man in a nearby summer theatre conservatory's Once Upon A Mattress is murdered, she gets a callback to investigate his death and play what she rapidly learns is not her usual role.

She's up to her royal eyeballs in spirit gum and facial hair and a murder investigation at the same time. The King is dead, Winnifred is missing, and local law enforcement is drowning in the swamps of home.

The apple orchards hold a deep, dark secret lineage, and Mex keeps having visions of the four lost treasures of The Holy Grail.

Will Mex swim the moat, or will she drown in the swamp of lies begun many moons ago?