Books in the Homefront Mystery series

March 1943. As the Buffalo winter ends, the father of Betty Ahern''s friend, Lee Tillotson, disappears. At first his absence is a relief, providing Lee, his mother and sisters refuge from the man''s frequent drunken rages. But when Mr. Tillotson is discovered drowned in the Buffalo River and the police charge Lee with the murder, the family''s newfound peace shatters.Worse, Lee becomes secretive and unwilling to cooperate with Betty or the police. Betty is certain of Lee''s innocence, but there she has very little time to investigate before he must enter his plea in court. To prove Lee''s innocence, Betty digs into Mr. Tillotson''s life, discovering a seamy and dangerous underside to Mr. Tillotson, and to Buffalo itself. With time running out, Betty soon learns who her friends really are, how much Lee loves his family and friends and is loved in return, and just how far the corruption leaking from Buffalo''s City Hall has reached. But can she prove Lee''s innocence before it''s too late? 

November, 1942. Betty Ahern is doing her part for the war, working at Bell Aircraft while her older brother and fiancé are fighting overseas, but she really wants to be a private detective like her movie idol Sam Spade. When sabotage comes to the plant, and a suspected co-worker hires her to clear her name, Betty sees it as her big chance.As her questions take her into Buffalo’s German neighborhood, Kaisertown, Betty finds herself digging into a group that is trying to resurrect the German-American Bund, a pro-Nazi organization. Have they elevated their activities past pamphlets and party-crashing?When the investigation leads Betty and her two friends into a tangle of counterfeiting and murder, as well as the Bund, the trio must crack the case--before one or more of them ends up in the Buffalo River…wearing concrete overshoes.