Birmingham, Alabama, is a great place to call home, but even
practical-minded Patricia Anne is feeling a need to get out of her rut
and - sibling rivalry aside - a vacation with Mary Alice in her luxury
beachfront condo in Destin, Florida, sounds like heaven. Their friend
Frances and Patricia Anne's widowed daughter Haley jump at the chance to
join them, so Patricia Anne kisses her ever-loving spouse Fred good-bye,
with instructions for watering the plants and feeding the dog, and the
girls pack up the car and head south for some fun in the sun. No one's
against a little excitement, least of all Mary Alice, and watching the
sun go down on the beautiful shores of the Gulf of Mexico looks pretty
tame...until a dead body washes up in the gentle waves. Since Mary Alice
has managed to make the acquaintance of just about everyone in sight,
the murder victim is no stranger to the sisters and they feel obliged to
find the killer. But with no witnesses to the crime except a few great
blue herons, the sisters have no choice but to bypass the clueless
police and follow their own instincts down a murky trail of dirty
real-estate deals, giant sea turtle habitats, and enough big money
interests to point to a mammoth motive for murder.