First in the series: A full-figured Southern police detective transplanted to sunny California untangles the murder of a politician's husband.

Detective Sergeant Savannah Reid is a long way from Georgia, but she'll go anywhere for good food and good friends. And policing the exclusive Southern California town of San Carmelita is as tasty as sausage-gravy-and-biscuits with super-spicy home fries. Until city councilwoman Beverly Winston's husband turns up dead—and an unprecedented media frenzy sweeps the elite beach community like a tsunami.

The good news—Savannah is put in charge of the case. The bad—she's pressured to investigate any person of interest except the main one: Beverly herself. And when Savannah refuses to play ball, she's summarily fired for "being overweight." But when another suspect hires her to find the truth, Savannah turns up the heat on an unsavory mess of triple-dealing, infidelity, and betrayal that will rock San Carmelita's sun-soaked elegance to its core—and put a calculating murderer's target dead on Savannah's back.

Starring a "warm, winsome, and weight-bedeviled" heroine whose down-home savvy can solve the most sophisticated crimes, this series is a delight for mystery fans (Publishers Weekly).