Chloe Jackson, Sea Glass Saloon Mystery

With Chicago winters in the rearview mirror, Chloe Jackson is making good on a promise: helping her late friend's grandmother run the Sea Glass Saloon in the Florida Panhandle. To Chloe's surprise, feisty Vivi Slidell isn't the frail retiree Chloe expects-nor is Emerald Cove. It's less a sleepy fishing village than a panhandle hotspot overrun with land developers and tourists. But it's a Sea Glass regular who's mysteriously crossed the cranky Vivi. When their bitter argument comes to a head and he's found dead behind the bar, guess who's the number one suspect? In trying to clear Vivi's name, Chloe discovers the old woman isn't the only one in Emerald Cove with secrets. Under the laid-back attitude, sparkling-white beaches, and small-town ways, something terrible is brewing. And the sure way a killer can keep those secrets bottled up is to finish off one murder with a double shot: aimed at Chloe and Vivi.

Chloe loves her new life pouring beers and mixing cocktails at the Sea Glass Saloon in the Florida Panhandle town of Emerald Cove. But on the job, the only exercise she gets is walking from one end of the bar to the other, so in the mornings, she loves to run on the beach. On this morning's foggy run, she spots a sailboat washed up on a sandbar. Hearing a cry, she climbs aboard the beached vessel to investigate and finds not only a mewling kitten but also a human skeleton in the cabin. The skeleton is tied to Chloe's friend Ralph, whose wife disappeared on a sailboat with three other people twelve years ago. Believing his wife lost at sea, Ralph remarried. Now he finds himself a murder suspect. Chloe is determined to find out who's been up to some skulduggery, but her sleuthing will lead her into some rough waters and some bone-chilling revelations...