Kay Dew Shostak – Carol's Notebook

Author: Kay Dew Shostak

After being raised in a small-town in Tennessee, Kay lived around the country in a variety of settings. Taking a look at the familiar and loved from new perspectives led Kay to see, and then write about, the absurd, the beautiful, and the funny in her South.

After publishing several stories in compilation books and spending a few years in journalism, Kay wandered into writing fiction and found it hard to leave. She currently is working on her next book and living in Fernandina Beach, Florida with her husband.

I picked up The Manatee Did It while I was on vacation on Amelia Island and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a cozy beach murder mystery that takes place on the fictional Sophia Island, which is heavily based on Amelia Island. It's always fun to be reading a book and think, "hey, I had dinner at that restaurant yesterday." It's a lovely place by the way. Jewel Mantelle and her husband, Craig, have moved to Florida after they inherits a decrepit old mansion. Jewel is also hoping to breath some life into the marriage, but that plan is not working out so well. Jewel is making friends, including a group of women who have lunch together, but settling into a new town is difficult. It becomes more complicated when the ladies find a dead body in the water during lunch and Craig become the chief suspect. Jewel, along with her new friends, start investigating. It's not that they don't trust the police-...