Dead In The Transition Zone
(2026)(The second book in the Kitchen Line Mysteries series)
A novel by Wynn Valentine
The dead engineer was supposed to certify the seawall.
Instead, he wound up floating beside it.
Retired forensic accountant Pepper Ramirez-Flynn thought solving one murder would earn her a quiet life on Palmetto Island. Instead, she's become the person everyone calls when something doesn't add up.
This time, the numbers are enormous.
An exclusive waterfront community is demanding nearly twenty million dollars from its residents for emergency seawall repairs. Days before the final vote, the consulting engineer hired to inspect the project is found dead beneath the very wall he was investigating.
Accident?
Not a chance.
As Pepper follows a trail of suspicious invoices, disappearing reports, shell companies, and decades of buried financial secrets, she discovers the seawall may not be the only thing ready to collapse.
With Birdie opening doors where she shouldn't, Theo urging caution, and a retired racing greyhound who always seems to know when danger is close, Pepper finds herself racing to expose a fraud worth millions before the killer buries the truth—and her—along with it.
Because on Palmetto Island, money has a way of changing people.
And somebody is willing to kill to keep the books closed.
Perfect for readers who love clever amateur sleuths, fair-play mysteries, small-town secrets, and cozy mysteries with a fresh financial twist.
Genre: Mystery
Instead, he wound up floating beside it.
Retired forensic accountant Pepper Ramirez-Flynn thought solving one murder would earn her a quiet life on Palmetto Island. Instead, she's become the person everyone calls when something doesn't add up.
This time, the numbers are enormous.
An exclusive waterfront community is demanding nearly twenty million dollars from its residents for emergency seawall repairs. Days before the final vote, the consulting engineer hired to inspect the project is found dead beneath the very wall he was investigating.
Accident?
Not a chance.
As Pepper follows a trail of suspicious invoices, disappearing reports, shell companies, and decades of buried financial secrets, she discovers the seawall may not be the only thing ready to collapse.
With Birdie opening doors where she shouldn't, Theo urging caution, and a retired racing greyhound who always seems to know when danger is close, Pepper finds herself racing to expose a fraud worth millions before the killer buries the truth—and her—along with it.
Because on Palmetto Island, money has a way of changing people.
And somebody is willing to kill to keep the books closed.
Perfect for readers who love clever amateur sleuths, fair-play mysteries, small-town secrets, and cozy mysteries with a fresh financial twist.
Genre: Mystery