Professor Madeline McPhee is finally settling into her new job in Portland, Oregon, when one of her Aunt Fiona's Bridge buddies draws her into another investigation into an untimely death.

Dmitri Petrovich, a middle-aged man who'd recently lost his wife, was found poisoned at his favorite haunt, the Oregon Garden. Police concluded that Dmitri had died of an accidental exposure to pesticides but his brother, Mikhail, adamantly refused to accept that decision. Madeline figured that she could at least provide peace to Dmitri's family by learning more about the case but soon realizes that the evidence doesn't support the police's conclusion. Because of their reluctance to involve her, Madeline sets out to do some investigating on her own and discovers a deadly truth that brings her close to a killer, both human and poisonous.

A Curious Corpse Was He is the second installment in the Madeline McPhee mystery series, stories that embrace the quirky characters of a small village in the Pacific Northwest, the antics of a Maine Coon cat, and an amateur sleuth with the calm demeanor of Jessica Fletcher and the deductive skills of Sherlock Holmes.