You Trust Your Mother — Joyce H. Corrington

In this sixth of the New Orleans Mystery novels, Denise Lemoyne has inherited the New Orleans Item, the state's largest newspaper, and persuaded Wes Colvin to become its managing editor. The two are happily planning their wedding until Denise receives shocking news from an old flame, Andre Landry. Her mother, who Denise thought had died, has in fact been confined for the past twenty-two years in a private New Orleans mental hospital. When all the hospital's records are destroyed in a fire and its director is found shot to death, Captain "Rat" Trapp, of NOPD Homicide, has reason to think Denise's mother is guilty of murder. Wes and Andre compete to help Denise, as she struggles to prove that her faith in her mother's innocence is not misplaced.