Board Stiff (#12)

Helen Hawthorne and Phil—her husband and PI partner—are on the case when Jim Sandusky asks them to save his business. Because while “Sunny Jim’s Stand-Up Paddleboard Rental” is garnering a lot of attention, it’s not the kind the beachside business ever hoped to attract.

There’s a local restaurateur who wants the land for a parking lot, a competing board rental place aiming to poach customers, and a gang of local politicos who just want Jim gone. And Jim wants Coronado Investigations to find proof of dirty dealings.

They don’t have to try very hard, because it’s not too long before a customer of Jim’s dies after an accident. But when Jim insists it was a murder set up to make him look bad, it’s up to Helen and Phil to prove it before Sunny Jim’s is sunk for good.