There were numerous better ways for retiree Chris Landrum to begin his day than to listen to a traumatized friend Virgil DeBonnet telling him how he found a body with a knife sticking out his back and floating in a small boat less than a half mile from Chris's cottage. Landrum's day on Folly Beach, the small barrier island in the shadows of Charleston, South Carolina, turns even darker when Virgil convinces him and his best friend and self-anointed private detective Charles Fowler that it was up to them to find the person who ended the man's life.

The three friends twist, turn, and stumble their way among an increasing number of suspects including a former professional baseball player, the dead man's alleged partner in a con game, a wealthy businessman who'd fallen for the con, and more. The amateur detectives think they have the murder solved until their prime suspect becomes the second victim of the knife wielding killer. Unless they uncover the truth, and do it quickly, one of them will be the next murder victim.