Frankie McKeller hates the beach. He has ever since that day on the one they called Omaha. If the guy who saved his life during the war wasn't getting married he'd never have made the trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. As a low budget gum shoe out of Baltimore, he isn't prepared for a weekend of hobnobbing with the Southern elite. When a prominent wedding guest is found with a bullet to the brain, the six week course he took in private investigation proves lacking as well. Who knew life on the Grand Strand could be so grand? In three days at the beach he is seduced by a sultry debutante who used to be engaged to his buddy, threatened by a controlling father and roughed up by a mysterious henchman running muscle for the rich and privileged. Frankie is out of his element at the exclusive Ocean Forest Hotel, snooping and stumbling his way through his first ever murder case. The deeper he wades into the mystery the more things keep pointing back to his best friend and he is forced to come face to face with his own ghosts and demons. Crooked land deals, secret alliances and forgotten family skeletons cloud the truth in the land of sun, surf, golf and gators. Set in a budding beach resort, still searching for an identity, he finds that nothing is as it seems and his experience with following cheating husbands and wives offers little in the way of aid. He's looking for answers to questions some people don't want answered and his blend of jaded sarcasm with blunt Yankee machismo is leaving a lot of ruffled feathers in his wake. Torn between seeking the truth and protecting his friend, Frankie slowly begins to uncover clues as he's dragged deeper into an under tow of deceit and corruption. Southern tradition meets old school mystery in this twisting tale as rival families attempt to alter the course of what is destined to become one of America's top vacation destinations.