Murder and blackmail amid the ruins of antebellum splendor . . . Someone is making a killing in real estate.

Meet Bay Tanner, the high-powered financial consultant whose world was paradise until she witnessed her husband's horrific murder. Wounded and grieving, she retreats to her hideaway on Hilton Head Island. Then a cry for help forces her back to reality. Can she ignore the plight of her "old money" friends and family whose unwitting involvement in a shadowy land scheme may lead them to financial disaster . . . or worse? And what does all this have to do with Rob's murder? When a body is discovered floating near the ruins of an old plantation house, Bay is forced to confront these questions and admit that one thing is certain--someone is making a killing in real estate.

In this debut novel, Wall explores the ongoing conflict between the explosive resort developments in South Carolina and the preservationists determined to protect the barrier islands. Beneath a façade of Southern gentility, Bay Tanner exposes a tangled web of drugs, deceit and extortion.