Who is killing residents of a sea island community? Marley Clark, a retired military intelligence officer, works security for the Dear Island community simply to keep busy. A single night patrol transforms the feisty widow's yawner of a job into a deadly battle of wits when she finds an islander drowned and bobbing naked amid a potpourri of veggies in a Jacuzzi. Asked to serve as the lead investigator's liaison, the 52-year-old heroine is startled to discover she's become Deputy Braden Mann's target as well-for romance. Yet their steamy attraction doesn't deter the pair from sorting through a viper's nest of suspects as the body count grows and the pun-loving killer plans a grizzly epitaph for Marley.