The perfect, nude corpse of a beautiful woman washes up on a pristine Miami Beach — her body tanned and shapely, her nails elegantly manicured. The problem is that the victim, Kaithlin Jordan, was murdered ten years ago. And her convicted killer — her husband, R. J. Jordan, scion of a wealthy and powerful South Florida family — sits on death row, just weeks away from his execution.
Newspaper reporter Britt Montero recalls the high-profile murder trial that heated up a volatile tropical city like the merciless August sun. Even without a body, the prosecution’s case against Jordan seemed airtight and the jury enthusiastically bought into it. Now R.J. is preparing to walk — benefiting from the murderous “largess” of whoever drowned his wife in the ocean off Miami Beach — and Britt’s boundlessly curious nature is energized once more by a slew of questions that suddenly need answers. Did Kaithlin frame her husband for murder — or did she simply efficiently flee an abusive marriage? And why, after successfully reinventing herself, had she returned to South Florida, only to meet a very bad end in deep turquoise water?
Impulsive and explosive, with a turbulent love life and a unique, highly charged relationship with this singular metropolis erected between swamp and sea, Britt is only truly happy when she’s involved in a juicy murder story. And this one has the right smell and feel…and threat. Because somewhere in the tangle of an enigmatic beauty’s bizarre life and even stranger rebirth — somewhere between the sparkling gold coast glamour and flashing neon sleaze — are secret passions and buried solutions that could doom an overly inquisitive journalist with a tendency to leap before she looks. After all, this is Miami, where anything is possible…even dying twice.