Release Date: May 4, 2021

Letty Carnahan’s life is turned upside down when she is forced to flee New York City with her four year old niece, Maya, in tow after stumbling upon her younger sister’s body in her New York townhouse. Exhausted and emotionally drained, Letty arrives at a small beachside motel in Treasure Island, Florida – The Murmuring Surf. With nothing but her sister’s go-bag full of cash, a couple sets of clothes, and her little niece, Letty finds herself welcomed into the motel community full of quirky snowbirds and the friendly owner, Ava and her family. However, Ava’s son Joe is a local cop who catches a whiff of Letty’s complicated past and begins to dig into what really brought her to Florida.

As Letty begins to settle into life at the Murmuring Surf for herself and Maya, more of her sister’s secrets become revealed to her. Letty tries to piece together the puzzle of her sister’s murder, with her number one suspect being her sister’s ex-boyfriend, a crooked real estate investor. The longer Letty stays at The Murmuring Surf, the more complicated the mystery seems to become, but when she finally starts to trust her new friends the pieces begin to fit together.

The Newcomer is a great beach-read from the Queen of beach reads, Mary Kay Andrews. The story has bits of mystery, comedy, and romance with lots of Sunshine State charm and a whole bunch of quirky characters.