When Al Martin, the editor of a satiric newspaper in Chautauqua, N.Y., reportedly dies of COVID-19, the local consensus is: good riddance. A sister suspects foul play. She wonders why Al was cremated in a hurry. The police stay out of it. So it takes reporter and relentless snoop Mimi Goldman to try to find which of Al's haters — including an estranged wife, three bitter siblings, a secretive caregiver, old enemies and the many targets of Al's poison-pen sarcasm — might be a ruthless killer.