Loreli Sereno has everything-looks, a great job as a real estate broker in a booming market, easy access to addictive substances. Then Loreli, supposedly clean and sober, dies in a kayaking accident with drugs in her system. "Death by misadventure," asserts the Coroner. "Murder," claims the Sereno family, major players in the California Central Coast wine industry. Five years later, Bella Kowalski, former nun, now dirt-digging obituary editor, gets a call from Magda Sereno regarding her sister's cold-case murder. Magda suspects Loreli's former fiance, a maverick rancher who takes in the homeless on an ad hoc basis. Then Magda, a surfer, is brutally murdered on New Year's Day at Cuyamaca Beach's annual Polar Bear Dip. MURDER AT CUYAMACA BEACH leads readers through the dark underbelly of California's scenic Central Coast, where the homeless gather under bridges while the wealthy slumber beneath satin sheets, and a crowded beach offers no guarantee of safety."