Genevieve Essig

They say you don’t choose your family…

 

In the fall of 1883, when Cassie Gwynne, heartbroken over the sudden loss of her father, discovers a box of letters from an aunt she never knew she had, she takes a chance and returns to the southern island town where she was born to meet her. Cassie hasn’t been back to Fernandina since her family evacuated during the War when she was a baby, but from what she’s heard about this palm-tree-lined “Newport of the South,” it’s sure to impress, as is her Aunt Flora, whose reputation as a perfumer reaches beyond the island’s balmy shores.

 

From the moment Cassie arrives, however, things don’t go to plan. Particularly when, after witnessing a purse snatching, clashing with an irritating but good-looking policeman, and receiving an unwelcome surprise at the county jail, she stumbles upon Flora’s least-favorite neighbor lying dead at the foot of harbor pilots’ lookout tower.

 

The surly county coroner is quick to declare the death an accident. But Cassie, feeling the pull of instincts instilled in her by her attorney father, suspects something more sinister is involved and uncovers evidence that forces the coroner to launch a murder inquest. Unfortunately, the coroner’s jury proves to be neither competent nor objective and, influenced by old grudges and other personal agendas, quickly descends on Flora as its prime suspect. So, despite the distraction of an unexpected encounter with her dashing childhood crush and the questions still swirling in her head about her family’s past, Cassie must work together with Flora’s quirky group of friends—who include a foul-mouthed curiosities shop owner, a blind Civil War veteran, a half-Chinese newspaper boy, and an assortment of rescue animals—to find out what really happened to the murdered man, or else risk losing the only family she has left.