Ponte Vedra Beach author Shelley Marsh will celebrate the release of her fourth novel, “Up the Creek,” with a free public launch event from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2, at the Beaches Museum in Jacksonville Beach.
The evening will include an author talk, Q&A, and book-signing centered on the inspiration behind “Up the Creek,” an eco-mystery exploring the tension between coastal growth and protecting environmentally sensitive land.
The novel follows Amanda Wright, a research scientist who returns home to help save her aunt and uncle’s struggling ecotour business after a massive resort opens nearby. She soon discovers larger forces threatening the nature preserve she believed was safe from development. When a former colleague is found dead in the wetlands she is striving to protect, Amanda realizes she has uncovered a truth someone is willing to kill to keep hidden.
Marsh drew on more than 20 years of living in Northeast Florida, as well as her volunteer experience at the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve, while researching the novel.
“I wanted to give back, but I’ve gotten so much more out of my time there,” Marsh said. “The fictional river at the center of ‘Up the Creek’ is called the Iyola River, but its atmosphere and stakes are deeply inspired by the real-world beauty right here.”
The novel’s central conflict reflects a familiar Northeast Florida question: how can rapidly growing communities accommodate development while protecting environmentally sensitive coastal lands?
In 2024, Marsh became a Guy Harvey Certified Educator. “Up the Creek” follows her three humorous Estate Sale Mysteries, also set in a fictionalized version of Northeast Florida. Before focusing on fiction, Marsh worked as a staff writer at Void Magazine and contributed to Shorelines, the Florida Times-Union and The Ponte Vedra Recorder.
The Oct. 2 launch event at the Beaches Museum, 381 Beach Blvd. in Jacksonville Beach, is free and open to the public.
