BEACH BLONDE BETRAYAL a witty and addictive murder mystery (Florida Beach Mysteries Book 2)

Elaine Viets, Severn House Crime and Thriller, $29.99 hardback, 276 pp, July 7, 2026, ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0H3FZ6YRZ

Beach Blonde Betrayal is the second book in Elaine Viets Florida Beach Mysteries. I reviewed the first one here. Like the first book, Beach Blonde is set in the fabulous Floradora apartments in Peerless Point in Southeast Florida, built by a dancing girl in the 1920s after she was left widowed and wealthy. Now it’s run by Norah, the dancer’s granddaughter, who only rents to tenants who are good “Florida Man” or “Florida Woman” candidates, the kind you meet in news articles like ‘Naked Florida Man Tries to Force His Way Into Home Thru Doggie Door.’ Norah and her tenants form a chosen family, including hunky Dean, a former cop who is now in witness protection, Willow, a former model, Lennox, a Shakespearean actor, Mickey, a shy artist, and Billie the Banana Bandit who writes books about film. Two people who live and work at the apartments are also part of the family: Calypso, the Bahamian housekeeper who has been there since Norah was a child, and Rafael, the Colombian maintenance man and groundskeeper.

This is a traditional mystery with plenty of twists and more than a dash Viets’ trademark humor. The Florida people who live outside the Floradora make the eccentric Floradora residents seem tame, starting with Gil Shecker who rescues a wealthy woman’s cat from the jaws of an alligator. Mickey is certain that Gil is a con man, but is distracted from that when she falls in love suddenly with a traveling nurse. And then Peerless Point is terrorized by a serial strangler.

The first book in this series asked questions about how we live with the loss of what we love and how we recover by creating new families. This second book asks how we know what, and who, is true. Is Mr. Right too good to be true? Is the Good Samaritan who saves an old lady’s cat for real or a con? Can a whirlwind romance go the distance? Can a quirky Floradora resident also be a serial killer?

Put all your other summer reads aside and go for Beach Blonde Betrayal. You won’t regret it!