When John Fordman, millionaire oil man and leading citizen of the west Texas town named in his honor, is discovered dead from a bullet wound to his head inside his luxury Isotta-Fraschini limousine during the shooting of the latest local gusher, Joan Shields, society page editor of the Fordman Daily News, deems the shocking slaying a welcome diversion, as she would much rather be spending her time investigating ballistics and bloodstains than chronicling the convivial activities of the good ladies of the Laff-a-Lot Bridge Club. With the not overly bright local sheriff finding...