The Final Result — Chris Blunt

In the small Florida coastal community of Beach City, the elderly far outnumber the younger population. Since the right-to-die case of Terry Schiavo was recently tried in an adjacent county, the end-of-life position of the government has riled many of the locals-particularly Johanna Overholt, the wife of renowned Beach City sleuth Judge Ben Overholt. Johanna creates a budding organization intended to prevent the government from weighing in on such a personal decision. Opposed to her stand, a local church initiates a lawsuit to prevent a local hospice organization from giving palliative care, accusing both the hospice and an eldercare facility of providing assisted suicide. When controversy over the government's role in determining an individual's right to die escalates to murder-one failed attempt and one death-Judge Overholt and his daughter Karen, a newly promoted detective captain in the Beach City Police Department, are called to investigate. Is tender loving care at the end of your life something to be withheld by order of some religion or, even worse, by government decree? As more disturbing questions arise, Judge Overholt and Karen struggle to apprehend the culprits.