Publisher Description

A tense small town mystery that packs a big punch starring Nora Best.

Nora Best is enjoying the quiet life . . . finally. She's parked up the Airstream on a quiet stretch of beach and is now a seventh-grade teacher in a small peninsula town in the Pacific Northwest. Her biggest worry is keeping up with her quick-witted bunch of students. No drama. No danger. And most importantly - no one turning up dead.

Until they do, that is . . .

When a local environmental activist - and dad to one of her most troublesome students - is killed, Nora once again finds herself in the thick of an investigation that threatens her new-found peace. She soon uncovers that Ward's death is most likely linked to the building of the school's emergency tsunami tower - a project financed by Ward's ex-wife's new husband . . . and one that is testing the town's loyalty.

With emotions, and gossip, running high, in a community where everyone knows everyone else's secrets, Nora is in a race against time to get answers before fall storms slam their vulnerable Pacific Coast peninsula putting everyone's lives in danger!

Author Biography

Gwen Florio grew up in a farmhouse filled with books and a ban on television. After studying English at the University of Delaware, she began a decades-long career in journalism that has taken her around the country and to more than a dozen other countries, including several conflict zones. Her first novel in the Lola Wicks mystery series, Montana, won the Pinckley Prize for Crime Fiction and the High Plains Book Award, and was a finalist for the Shamus Award, an International Thriller Award and a Silver Falchion Award. She has since released four other books in the Lola Wicks series and two standalone novels. Best Laid Plans was the first book in the Nora Best series and her first with Severn House.

Review

Florio continues to put a contemporary spin on the old-fashioned whodunit * Kirkus Reviews *
A satisfying cozy * Booklist *
Enthralling . . . Florio never stretches credibility with Nora's talents, making it a treat to sleuth alongside her * Publishers Weekly *
A strong female lead and a dramatic look at seldom discussed social injustices . . . Hopefully Nora will be back soon * Publishers Weekly on Best Practices *
A hypercontemporary look at long-standing social justice issues * Kirkus Reviews on Best Kept Secrets *
Deftly weaving Nora's efforts to reestablish relationships into her realization that she must face unhappy truths about her past and her former friends, Florio, a former journalist, uses storytelling to explore the persistence of racism and the far-reaching damage it inflicts * Booklist on Best Kept Secrets *
A breathtaking page-turner * Kirkus Reviews Starred Review of Best Laid Plans *
The first in a new series, told from the viewpoint of a woman over 50, on her own for the first time, introduces a complex story. Florio's suspenseful mystery will have readers rooting for amateur sleuth Nora * Library Journal Starred Review of Best Laid Plans *
Engrossing series launch. Fans of strong female leads will look forward to seeing more of plucky Nora * Publishers Weekly on Best Laid Plans *

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