A local celebrity, Josie Babineaux has transformed her family’s modest Louisiana fish shack into a destination Cajun eatery known for a killer hot sauce and a quirky mascot--a rescued brown pelican named Gumbo.  

A profitable tourist season is predicted for the island until an oil spill threatens Grand Isle and everything Josie loves.

Josie seeks salvation in her new hot sauce, a face-melting, Carolina Reaper chili she’s entering in the Ragin’ Cajun Hot Sauce Competition. The $25K prize would save her food business and her family from bankruptcy.

But as she races to perfect the sauce before the deadline, troubles boil over with her teenaged daughter and her estranged husband. Things can’t seem to get any worse until Hurricane Alex rips into the oil-battered community and wreaks unimaginable havoc.  But as the women in her family have done for decades, Josie draws on her inner strength to fight for what matters most . . . her family and Gumbo whose now covered in the tar that washed ashore. 

Fans of PENGUIN BLOOM and Susan Wiggs’ SUGAR AND SALT will find WHERE THE PELICANS ROOST by Sharon Wishnow a triumphant debut about hardship, redemption and love as a small Southern community redefines itself in the wake of man-made and natural disasters.