When a retired British detective moves to Key West to run a dilapidated guest house and write mystery novels, he reluctantly finds himself solving real murders alongside a tough, no-nonsense local detective who despises his analog methods, but can't deny his results.

SYNOPSIS:

Keyes to Murder brings the classic British cozy procedural to the sun-drenched, eccentric shores of Key West. It centers on Raymond "Ray" Keyes, a retired British DCI who has traded the grey skies of London for the vibrant chaos of the "Conch Republic." Ray and his late wife honeymooned here, and he has invested his life savings into "The Six-Toed Cat Inn," a small guest house that provides him with modest income and endless material for his true passion: becoming a mystery novelist.

Ray writes longhand on yellow legal pads. He views the world through the lens of narrative structure. To Ray, a murder is just a story that someone is trying to tell badly. When a crime scene feels "over-staged" or an alibi has "plot holes," Ray's writer's brain starts itching.

This narrative obsession drives Lead Detective Melissa "Mel" Masters crazy. Mel is a sharp, athletic, pragmatic Key West native (think Angie Harmon as Jane Rizzoli). She relies on forensics, digital footprints, and hard evidence. She has no time for a British tourist staring at a single coffee cup for three hours because "it doesn't fit the character's motivation."

The bridge between them is Reggie Walters, a low-level detective desperate to impress Mel, and his partner Malcolm Jones, the flamboyant and deeply connected manager of Ray's guest house (who also serves as Ray's reluctant typist). Reggie uses Malcolm's back-channel connection to Ray to secretly get help on tough cases, passing Ray's insights off as his own — until Mel figures it out and realizes she needs the quirky Brit's help.