Sheila Marie Palmer delivers a classic battle of good versus evil in "Life and Death on Siesta Key," her follow-up to "Life and Death on the Tamiami Trail," and the second installment in the "Life and Death" murder mystery series. Sheriff Charlotte Bernadette "Bernie" Raines Davis and her husband, Sheriff Buck Davis, are back, protecting their beloved community of Sarasota, Florida - this time from the evils of corrupt politics, greed, and the occult. Growth, too much and too fast, has decimated the simpler, more peaceful, and safer 1950s Sarasota that Bernie remembers from childhood. The natural beauty of a sandy beach is destroyed by the bloody murder of a beautiful woman. The prime suspect - a powerful politician who Bernie dated just months ago. Now he wants and needs her help. A desperate search for the truth finds Bernie face-to-face with the terror of ultimate evil. Can she overcome the darkness or will it destroy all that she holds dear?

Sheriff Bernie Raines finds herself torn between loyalty to a childhood friend and her sworn duty to uphold the law. The year is 1985, but this incident has pulled her thoughts back to a simpler time full of happy chldhood memories and loving family and friends. A piece of those memories is missing, and though she struggles to bring it to the surface, it may be forever lost in the murky shadows of the past. Bernie enlists the help of her friend Sheriff Buck Davis, and the two soon find themselves immersed in a mystery as complicated and unpredictable as the clan of Gypsies that seems to be manipulating their destinies.