A popular marine biologist is dead. An octopus named Fred is accused of killing her. Can Xena interrogate Fred and solve the crime before more people die? Xena Cali is a somewhat overzealous investigator with a passion for poetic justice. Her latest case takes her to the Biological and Aquatic Research Labs (BARL) in Galveston, where Dr. Jane Moore is found dead in a tank with a large octopus wrapped around her body. When Dr. Ari Pani (42 and very handsome) doesn't accept the police's conclusion of death by octopus, he hires Xena to find the truth before Fred is lethally injected in two weeks. The investigation tests her mental and athletic prowess, her stash of spy shop gadgets and her assumptions about octopuses. She'll need all that and a commandeered Segway to stay alive. Toxic Octopus is the first book in the Spy Shop mystery series. If you like fast-paced crime novels, clever satire and gritty beach towns, then you'll love this humorous mystery.