Hello there, island visitors! I’m Whitney Dagner, Whit for short, and I’ll be your guide around the island of Santa Catalina, off the coast of California. We’re small but mighty on this little slice of heaven out in the ocean. Ignore the guy who keeps trying to wave at you. Nick is my brother and a pain in the. . . well, we’ll skip that. But I guess I’ll keep him because, family, you know. . .

Jump on into my golf cart (because I’ll be in my seventies before I could get an actual car on island—rules and all that) and let’s take a little jaunt around this place I like to call home.

We have stores galore, including my own little novelty shop, and buffalo too (seriously, someone left them after a movie shoot and now they’re our island friends, though I wouldn’t get too close). And Nick and I run a glass-bottom boat tour in the bay. We take our guests out to see all kinds of beautiful things under the sea. Some a little more unexpected than others. But that’s a story for another time.

Our grandparents, Goldie (don’t call her Grandma or you risk your life) and Pops, have now retired, or so they say. That left Nick to run the boat tours all by himself. I couldn’t let him have all the fun. So I dragged my best friend Maribel Hernandez over with me from our corporate world in Long Beach, and we became residents of this beautiful little town of Avalon.

And it is beautiful, even when we have to deal with unsavory people and things going awry. Let’s not focus on that, though. There are so many other, better things to concentrate on.

Like the amazing colors of the sky as the sun sinks behind the mountain in the middle of the island. The birds that flock to the island. The acres and acres of sanctuary. And the way the waves break gently against the shore line in Avalon. Of course, I might never look at the water quite the same way since I just found out that my ex-boyfriend, Felix Ramirez, who I thought I’d left behind on the mainland, accepted a job with the small police department as a diver.

However, Maribel, my cat Whiskers, and I are starting fresh here on Catalina and nothing can ruin that. I’m coming back to my favorite place from my childhood, and Maribel is experiencing life on the island to the fullest. If a little trouble gets in our way, then we’ll deal with it. Hopefully we’ll even get to live through it. . .

Much Ado about Nauticaling, A Whit and Whiskers Mystery #1
Genre: Cozy
Release: July 2021
Purchase Link

Whitney Dagner is your tour guide to a Pacific paradise that’s to die for—only to find it’s a place people are also willing to kill for—in Gabby Allan’s Much Ado About Nauticaling, first in the Whit and Whiskers Mystery series.

After far too many years in the Los Angeles corporate world, Whitney Dagner has come home to Santa Catalina Island off the California coast to help her brother Nick run Nautically Yours, the family tourism business. Between gift shop shifts selling all manner of T-shirts and tchotchkes and keeping her feline Whiskers in fine fettle, she pilots the Sea Bounder, a glass bottom boat showing tourists the underwater sights of aquatic plants, marine life—and a murder victim?

The self-proclaimed “Master of the Island,” Jules Tisdale was a wealthy man with business interests throughout Catalina who was about to be honored as Person of the Year before someone strangled him with his own tie and tossed his body into the water. That someone appears to be Nick, who had a raw deal from Jules and no alibi the night of his murder. To clear her brother’s name, Whit will have to investigate Jules’ shady associates and not exactly grief-stricken family members—with the unwelcome help of Felix Ramirez, police diver and Whit’s ex-boyfriend who’s looking to rekindle their relationship.

About the author
After writing plays for her friends to act out as a kid, bad poetry in high school, and her high school Alma Mater song, Gabby Allan finally found her true passion—cozy mysteries. Being able to share her world with readers, one laugh at a time, and touch people’s hearts with her down-to-earth characters makes for the best job ever. This California girl now lives with her husband, daughter, and two insane dogs in Central Pennsylvania where she is hard at work on her next novel.

Gabby Allan Mysteries – A little charm, a little mayhem, a lot of fun! Connect with Gabby at gabbyallan.com.

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