Death By Malice. A Josiah Reynolds Mystery, #10

In the tradition of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, our amateur sleuth, Josiah Reynolds, finds herself embroiled in yet another Southern murder mystery. This time it involves the disappearance of a good friend whose house burns down to the ground. Not only does Josiah's friend go missing, but her husband and another woman as well. Hmm. Were they all involved in a love triangle that went bad or was it just coincidence? Josiah, our intrepid female sleuth, is on the case!Josiah Reynolds opens her front door to find her neighbor, Sandy Sloan, clutching her little dog, Georgie.
"Hi Josiah. Sorry to bother you. Can you keep my dog for a couple of days while I check on my mother? She's ill and needs help." Josiah reluctantly says yes, not because she didn't want to take care of the animal. She has plenty of room for a little dog like Georgie. She is reluctant because she knows Sandy's mother couldn't possibly be ill. Her mother is, in fact, dead.  Why would Sandy tell such a lie? And a stupid lie at that.
Was Sandy trying to signal she was in distress and needed help? Josiah has no way of knowing that in four hours, Sandy would disappear from the face of the earth, and no one-not even Josiah-would be able to find her and that it would lead to murder!