Surface Tension Paperback – December 25, 2025

A woman’s scream in the middle of the night, coming from the mysterious white house in Ozona facing the Gulf of Mexico, awakens Steve Morrison from a sound sleep in his house a block away. It’s the latest in a series of unusual events that have been occurring in that house since it was sold after being battered by Hurricane Ian two years earlier.Concerned residents pack the Ozona Village Hall for a meeting addressing a growing problem in the village: the explosion of single-family homes that have been converted to short-term rental properties. Rip Eastmoreland, who lives next door to the white house, is the most vocal protester at the meeting, airing his grievances related to his neighbors and walking out of the meeting in disgust when local officials are unable to answer a simple question he posed: who owns the house at 298 Bay Street?Four days after the village hall meeting, things take a darker turn when Eastmoreland is found dead in his home. Toxicology reports from his autopsy reveal his death to be a homicide, which sparks wild speculation in the quaint, laidback village of Ozona: who among them may be a cold-blooded killer?Surface Tension, the latest offering from J.E. McBee, is a taut mystery that will have readers searching for answers until the final page. Read more