The newcomer
(Book)

After she discovers her sister Tanya dead on the floor of her fashionable New York City townhouse, Letty Carnahan heeds her late sister"s warnings: "If anything bad happens to me-- it's Evan. Promise me you'll take Maya and run. Promise me." Letty hits the road in Tanya's Mercedes with her wailing four-year-old niece Maya, a "go-bag" of cash and a big honking diamond ring but only one clue: a faded magazine story about The Murmuring Surf Motel in the Florida beach town of Treasure Island. The Surf is the winter home of a close-knit flock of retirees and snowbirds. Letty and Maya settle in, try to unravel Tanya's shady past, and dodge the owner's son Joe, who just happens to be a local police detective. -- adapted from jacket