Slaying at the Seashore — Sandra Sookoo

Is it a bad omen when a dead body makes an appearance ahead of a nuptial ceremony? On the June morning of Major Felix Kourier's nuptial ceremony, he's walking the shore in Brighton to calm his nerves. After getting engaged at Christmastide the year earlier, he is finally taking the lovely, quirky Caroline to wife, yet when a corpse washes ashore not ten feet from him, he can't help but wonder if fate is trying to intervene, for the body had clearly been stabbed. And what was more, it was one of the guests. Dressed in her wedding finery, as the Honorable Caroline Ives stands at the window of the cottage her parents rented, she catches sight of her handsome, grouchy groom coming back with an expression on his face that meant something wasn't right. The second she reaches the major's side, and he speaks of murder, she's wracked with dread. She has a feeling her impending nuptials might be in jeopardy, especially since the dead man was a previous suitor. This could go horribly wrong. Despite being tasked to investigate the peer's murder as well as his connection to Caro, Felix insists the ceremony go ahead. She agrees, and though the wedding is sandwiched between detecting and doubt, it's fraught with anxiety. But as danger creeps into the celebrations and shocking secrets become exposed that rock the newly wedded pair's promises, the investigative couple must put personal feelings aside to solve the case before anyone else falls into peril, for murder—and the past—has no place in newlywed life. Hopefully.