Northern Exposure meets Carl Hiaasen with a Jimmy Buffett twang. A faded dynasty, a mouthy parrot, and a pastry-fueled murder... It’s February 1998, and Kate McGregor has a system: avoid the town’s eccentric gossip, stay inside her inherited Gilded Age home, and focus on the quirky local crafts in her consignment gallery. Between her meddling Scottish father and her best friend Cindy’s unconventional Hide Tides Bakery regulars, Kate’s introverted life is already louder than she’d like—and that’s before you count her rescued family zoo of cats, dogs, and a macaw. But the peace of Manatee Bay is fragile. When a widely disliked local figure drops dead at the Spring Berry Festival, the trail leads straight to Cindy’s award-winning pastries. To save her friend and the town’s favorite gossip hub, Kate must step out of the shadows of her family’s dark history and into the spotlight of a murder investigation. In Manatee Bay, the secrets are as deep as the Gulf. Backed by a quirky cast of characters, including an 88-year-old attorney who made her grandmother a deathbed promise, Kate must untangle a web of old wealth intrigues, long-standing lies, and new grudges. Can she clear her friend's name, or will the dark history of her own family’s ruined fortune catch up to her first? This is the first of six books (releasing every 14-18 weeks). While the contemporary murders are solved in each book, an overriding arc explores the clouded family history and scandalous mysteries that have haunted the town since Kate's grandfather’s time.