Book excerpt: Witty and irreverent homicide detective Maggie Skerritt liked her quiet, sleepy workdays. Violence in Pelican Bay, Florida, was rarely an issue, and Maggie certainly wasn't itching for the tide to change. Maintaining a professional distance had always been Maggie's M.O., but the more she learned about the homicide victims, the less sleep she got. Each woman had started to get her life back on track — something Maggie had been meaning to do for years. It was a wake-up call — and Maggie was more determined, once she solved the case, to reevaluate her own life. Especially her relationship with a certain former police detective…