Even paradise can hold dark secrets just beneath the sparkling surface. Everyone has an image to uphold, especially in Orange County, California.

Poppy Mackenzie has spent half her life avoiding her past and living as an ex-pat. When her grandfather coerces her to come home and work for the family business, she must put her free-spirited life on hold.

What was supposed to be a boring office job for six months, turns out to be something altogether different. Family secrets, mysterious strangers, and a dead body conspire to pique her curiosity and mire her in more than one mystery as she keeps digging for the truth.

New year, new murder. Some people get fireworks—Poppy Mackenzie gets dead bodies.

All she wanted was to curl up by the fire with a good mystery novel. Instead, she’s knee-deep in a real one, tangled in the dark world of child trafficking, drug cartels, and dangerous men in expensive suits.

Six months back in Southern California, and she’s still struggling to find her footing amid the posh yacht clubs, sun-drenched beaches, and shady characters at every turn. This case might just pull her under.

But Poppy isn’t one to back down...