MURDER ON MEMORY LAKE

Life is anything but serene for a widow making a new life for herself in Tranquility, New Jersey.

Alberta Ferrara Scaglione has precious few kind memories of her life as a wife and mother in New Jersey. She didn’t quarrel with her late husband, Sammy, but she never really loved him either. Her daughter, Lisa Marie Scaglione Maldonado, is another story. Alberta and Lisa Marie fought likes cats and dogs until the Maldonado family finally moved to Florida—“and not the fun part,” as Lisa Marie’s daughter, Jinx, points out, but the landlocked burg of Eufala. So Alberta considers it more or less her due when her elderly Aunt Carmela leaves her a home on beautiful Memory Lake in the idyllic town of Tranquility. Her life gets even better when Jinx, having dutifully attended Chipola College, near her Florida home, high-tails it back to the Garden State, where she gets a job at the Upper Sussex Herald. Only one cloud shadows the grandma-granddaughter reunion: the body of Alberta’s childhood frenemy, Lucy Agostino, floating practically outside Alberta’s front door. But even this cloud is silver-lined. The search for Lucy’s killer provides the perfect excuse for Alberta and Jinx to bond. Supported by Alberta’s sharp-tongued ex-nun sister, Helen, and their sister-in-law Joyce, grandma and Jinx do what feisty women everywhere do best: solve a murder.

Griffo launches a series with something for everyone: eager young newshounds, well-seasoned sleuths, and a stash of Italian recipes (some gluten-free) to boot.