A gripping whodunit that will leave you suspicious of every unpopulated beach you ever walk or jog, from the award-winning author of The Christmas Tree Corpse.

Take a beautiful blonde that every man wanted, a senseless murder no one saw coming, a rookie cop in over his head, and a newlywed vacationing detective determined to build a relationship with his rebellious stepdaughter and ask, "Who's going to solve this murder?" In the summer of 1956, two quaint little towns in Alabama will see their proper sweet-tea world get twisted and swirled like the cinnamon bread BettyJo Bentley brings to the victim's house. And how did BettyJo, the mother of the jilted boyfriend, know of the murder before the victim's family? The next shoe to drop may be one of BettyJo's open-toed alligator pumps.