Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Up the Creek: A Florida Eco-Mystery by Shelley Marsh. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!
Up the Creek: A Florida Eco-Mystery by Shelley Marsh
Up the Creek: A Florida Eco-Mystery
Mystery
Stand Alone
Setting – Florida
Publisher : Sibylline Digital First
Publication date : October 2, 2026
Print length : 300 pages
Digital
In the Florida marshlands, Amanda finds herself in a fight that’s personal, political, and deadly
After losing her research grant, marine botanist Amanda Wright returns to her Florida hometown and takes a job at her family’s eco-tour business. But the quiet marshlands she once loved are under threat from a flashy new resort and a suspicious rezoning effort on protected land. Then a fellow scientist dies under mysterious circumstances, and a rare aquatic plant is found that may hold the key to stopping development.
As buried secrets come to light and her long-absent mother resurfaces with regrets of her own, Amanda must decide what kind of person and protector she wants to be.
A suspenseful, emotionally layered mystery set against a lush coastal backdrop, Up the Creek explores the fragile balance between progress and preservation, and one woman’s determination to defend the place she still calls home.
Praise for Up the Creek
“Sharp writing, a clever mystery, entertaining characters, and the tropical Florida setting will entice readers to pay more than one visit to author Marsh’s Mysteries.”
—Ellen Byron, author of the Golden Motel Mystery series
When the Water Glows by Shelley Marsh
What I remember most about the bioluminescence tour is the mosquitoes.
That’s not entirely true, but they were notable. We’d been warned. For obvious reasons, bioluminescence tours happen in the dark, and that’s when mosquitoes earn their reputation as Florida’s state bird. I’d sprayed my entire family liberally with insect repellent before the four of us left our Airbnb. The inside of the car smelled like a citronella candle.
I’d seen a cool advertisement on Facebook and signed us up. I’d even checked the lunar chart and booked it during a new moon. I’d been told that the darker it was, the brighter the bioluminescence would be. My two sons had balked at the idea of a kayak tour, so I booked the family tour which involved an 8-man raft.
The tour met at Kelly Park on Merritt Island, Florida. There was a natural launching area there, which seemed to mean you shove off from a muddy shore. From there, we would make our way into the Indian River Lagoon. It’s an estuary, which means an area where fresh water and salt water meet. The brackish water is ideal for dinoflagellates, a source of bioluminescence. We also hoped to see bioluminescent comb jellies, though we were told they were more common in the winter.
When we arrived at the launch spot, a tour guide was helping another family (a mother, father, and their young son) put on life jackets. The other family hadn’t known about the mosquitoes. I took pity on them and lent them my spray.
The raft was a large inflatable one made of tough rubber. Our tour guide moved it as close to shore as possible. Because we were paying customers, the tour guide didn’t make us get our feet wet. We all boarded the raft on the muddy shore, and she dragged us into the water like she’d trained on a tire pull.
We might have paid, but we were still expected to paddle. From her perch in the back, our guide instructed us in proper paddling technique. Her job was twofold: to serve as the rudder and the eighth paddler. My husband, my two sons, and I were dutiful paddlers. The other dad—not so much.
Gradually, we made our way into the darkest center of the lagoon. A hush fell on the group. Something large and dark loomed up ahead: an island. Mangroves hunched along the shoreline, their claw-like roots reaching down into the water. Another tree-lined island rose from the gloom farther ahead. Our guide directed the raft into a sheltered area, as far away from light pollution as possible. As we drew near a thicket of mangroves, she directed our attention to the water. A glowing blue stroke followed her paddle through the water.
We were all impressed. The little boy “oooed.” His dad tried to take a picture. We all tried to recreate the phenomenon with our own paddles. My sons eagerly swooped their paddles through the water, oooing and ahhing at the streaks of blue light they were able to stir up with each stroke. The bioluminescence didn’t really show up well when we tried to capture it in a photo. It was something to appreciate in the moment, in person.
At least, that’s what I decided. The other dad kept trying to take pictures.
We paddled farther along, deeper into the lagoon. Our guide had a few small nets on hand. She directed us to an area where the bioluminescence was more of a purplish blue. This glow came from comb jellies. She explained they were not really jellyfish but a variety of zooplankton. She scooped some up in a net and let us touch them. They glow when you touch or disturb them. It’s a defense mechanism meant to startle predators—or kayakers with nets.
At first, my sons were dubious, but soon they took their turn with the net and touched the comb jellies, declaring them “squishy.”
As we headed back to where our tour began, I heard a noise nearby: a sudden whoosh. It was a little startling, out on the water in near-complete darkness, with nothing but an inflatable raft supporting us. I looked around for the source and spotted something moving in the water nearby. It was a fin. Another puff of water from a blowhole identified it as a dolphin.
He stayed beside us for a little while before swimming off into the darkness.
That bioluminescence tour inspired a scene in my novel, Up the Creek. Through words, I tried to capture the experience: the children’s wonder and awe, the feeling of being an explorer on the water in darkness, the amazing sight of that first paddle stroke through the water, the blue-green glow. Though I couldn’t capture it on film, I captured it in another way: on the page.
About Shelley Marsh
Shelley Marsh is the author of the Estate Sale Mysteries, including Dying to Live Here, More Than She Bargained For, and Everything Must Go. She writes character-driven mysteries set along Florida’s coast, where community ties, hidden motives, and shifting loyalties shape the story. With Up the Creek, she expands into eco-mystery, blending environmental conflict with political intrigue and emotional stakes. When she’s not writing, she can often be found exploring the beaches and marshlands that inspire her fiction. She lives and writes in coastal North Florida.
Facebook: Author Shelley Marsh
Instagram: A1ABeachWriter https://www.instagram.com/a1abeachwriter/
TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@BookTokBelle
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@A1ABeachWriter
BlueSky: @shelleymarsh.bsky.social
Purchase Link: Amazon
Up the Creek TOUR PARTICIPANTS
October 26 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
October 27 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT
October 28 – Guatemala Paula Loves to Read – SPOTLIGHT
October 29 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
October 30 – Ascroft, eh? – AUTHOR GUEST POST
October 31 – Sarandipity’s – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
October 31 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
November 1 – deal sharing aunt – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
November 1 – Book HookUp – REVIEW
November 2 – Christa Reads and Writes – REVIEW
November 3 – Salty Inspirations – CHARACTER GUEST POST
November 3 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW
November 4 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
November 4 – Books1987 – SPOTLIGHT
November 5 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – AUTHOR GUEST POST
November 5 – fundinmental – REVIEW
November 6 – Sarcastically Yours, Jen – SPOTLIGHT
November 7 – StoreyBook Reviews – CHARACTER GUEST POST
November 8 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – SPOTLIGHT
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