My name is Kathleen Wade MacGregor. I was born in Manatee Bay, Florida, the sleepy Gulf coast town my great-grandfather founded. Unfortunately, I am also the granddaughter of the nefarious Ollie Wade, a man who spent his life destroying every amazing thing his father created.
The town threw a huge party in 1956 when Ollie died. Literally. The grapevine claimed my grandmother paid for it. Rumors in Manatee Bay aren’t always true, but I believe that one.
My dad did his best to raise me alone once he pulled his head out of the bottle and dealt with being a 20-year-old widower with a newborn baby. But his long hours on construction jobs forced me to spend most of my childhood with the huge, boisterous family across the street. The oldest of the seven Becker children, Cindy, has been my best friend ever since.
I met my grandmother, Addy, at Ollie’s funeral when I was six years old, and started spending time with her whenever Dad worked weekends. I adored her beautiful Persian cat, Mandrake, and was captivated by her young blue-and-gold macaw, Arthur. I helped her teach him to talk, and he became a bright spot in her lonely life. He lives with me now.
Most townies shunned Addy because of the hardships Ollie caused many of the local families. Knowing that legacy would be passed on to her granddaughter, she taught me deductive reasoning so I would recognize people’s ulterior motives. At first, we read my mother’s old Nancy Drew books, and then graduated to Agatha Christie and Conan Doyle. I learned how to be strong from Addy, but I also learned to isolate myself from the world. Now, over forty years later, I’m wondering if that was a good thing.
When Addy died a few years ago, the only thing left of the family fortune was The Tides, the beautiful coastal home that sits on Main Street, two blocks from the Gulf. Dad’s renovations created adjoining apartments upstairs for Cindy and me, where the shared space allows our cats, dogs, and Arthur to hang out together. The ground floor was turned into two storefronts for us. At 46, Cindy realized her lifelong dream of owning her own bakery, High Tides, while I opened The Tidewater Consignment Gallery next door. My shop is quieter, but I’m able to sell local artwork and handicrafts to bakery customers who wander in, and I have time to paint Florida landscapes in the studio area.
Cindy, my only friend, is my exact opposite. She smiles constantly, sings while she bakes, and fills her High Tides Bakery with laughter and the scent of freshly baked pastries. It’s no wonder it quickly became the favorite gossip center in this town full of eccentrics and misfits.
Life should have been wonderful once we opened our shops and the townies started to flock in. And at first it was. Until the murders started…
TIDES, LIES, AND ALIBIS
Series: A Manatee Bay Mystery, Book 1
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: May 2026
Format: Digital
Purchase Link
Sunshine. Sea breezes. Secrets deadly enough to sink a town.
Every tide brings something new to Manatee Bay. This one brings murder.
In 1998 Manatee Bay, Florida, sunshine and small-town secrets go hand in hand—and no one knows that better than artist Kate MacGregor, the last heir to a faded Florida dynasty with a grand house and an empty bank account. When the Spring Berry Festival takes an unexpected turn, Kate’s lifelong friend Cindy—owner of the local gossip center, High Tides Bakery and Café—lands at the center of a scandal. Her signature “Immaculate Confection” strawberry cream puff entry in the Berry Bake-off is suddenly a “murder weapon,” and Kate decides it’s time to put her quick instincts and tactless charm to good use.
As gossip begins to rise faster than the Gulf tides and a parade of quirky locals (and a menagerie of pets, including a mouthy parrot and a stray Golden Retriever) offer more confusion than clues, Kate soon finds herself digging into a mystery that goes deeper than a simple case of “baker’s envy.” With the help of her Scottish immigrant father and a sharp-witted eighty-eight-year-old mentor who knows where the town’s bodies are buried, Kate begins to untangle a web of old family grudges that trace back to her own grandfather’s dark history. As new suspicions grow, she’ll need every ounce of courage—and a few lucky breaks—to discover the truth before Manatee Bay jumps to all the wrong conclusions.
Engaging, atmospheric, and filled with coastal charm, Tides, Lies, and Alibis marks the start of the Manatee Bay Cozy Mystery series.
Meet the author
Taffy Beach spent the bulk of her adult life in a small Florida Gulf town, a setting that continues to inspire the sunny, coastal atmosphere of her Manatee Bay Mysteries. She is an animal lover from way back, and these days enjoys spending time with her wise old tuxedo cat, Edgar, who provided valuable input and continual support throughout the writing of the series (and had “the most handsome” character modeled after him). When she isn’t plotting twists or dreaming up new ways to kill off a character, Taffy is usually found with knitting needles in hand, creating handmade pet toys, beds, and blankets to donate to local shelters, hoping to bring a little extra comfort to animals waiting for their forever homes.