It's Fourth of July in Salem, Massachusetts-and B&B owner Charlene Morris is about to witness the shot heard 'round the town . . .

Madison Boswell, a beauty recently transplanted from Boston, is starring in the Independence Day play in this New England town full of colonial history-and, of course, witchcraft. Madison may not be a Wiccan, but she does seem to have certain hypnotic powers. And she's left some angry people in her wake, from a fellow actress beaten out for a role to a jealous betrayed wife. Now, as Charlene films the performance for her housemate, Jack-a handsome ghost who shares the Victorian bed-and-breakfast with her and her Persian cat-the drama queen takes a deadly bullet from what was supposed to be a prop gun.

With a long list of suspects and lots of backstage whispers, it looks like the investigation by Charlene and Detective Sam Holden could set off some fireworks . . .