After solving a sensational murder case, Professor Samuel Pope and Francie Steele embark on a year-long courtship. Sam finally pops the question to his one-time student, and a wedding date is set.

But before Francie can savor this turn of events, one of Sam's academic colleagues, the supposedly happily-married Lily, dies in a puzzling "suicide," which Francie suspects is murder in disguise.

At the request of Lily's grief-stricken cousin, Francie investigates Lily's death. This complicates Francie's already-hectic life. In addition to developing her relationship with Sam, Francie is working, raising her five-year-old daughter, finishing her college degree, and trying to put the brakes on her mother's plans for a wedding extravaganza. As Francie explores the lie behind Lily's wedded bliss, she faces her own marital misgivings head-on, and in the process puts her life at risk.

MARRIAGE CAN BE MURDER is the second book in the Francie and Sam series that began with BOUND BY BLOOD. Look for the third installment, CRY, BABY, CRY, to be published in 2005.