In addition, she has lost her beloved husband and finds herself too often drifting toward the company of the dead rather than of the living, immersing herself in her work and exhausting herself to ease her pain. Fortunately, Toni is surrounded by friends and relatives who genuinely like her and respect her work. There is her son Mike, a homicide detective, her spry 83-year-old dad who still fixes cars for friends, Lt. Drew Smith of the Texas Rangers, and a host of others who cooperate with her to solve the crimes at hand.