Genre: Mystery/Suspense
Hardcover; Trade Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781635115901; 9781635115871
Henery Press Publishing
240 Pages
$31.95; $15.95; $$4.99 Amazon
March 17, 2020
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Ballantyne Foundation Director and PI-in-training, Elliot Lisbon, is enjoying her idyllically slow life on Sea Pine Island, South Carolina. It's the week before the annual Beach Ball and she's sipping Bellinis on the sidelines. Her committee involvement is limited to securing the centerpieces: scrumptious two-tiered masterpieces from the Cake & Shake. But when the head baker (and owner's maid of honor) goes missing, Elli's calm life gets a major shakeup.
She takes the case and soon learns that missing is a relative term. These two bffs were once rivals on a local dating show. Perhaps the free spirit had reason to wander off on her own. Or perhaps she wasn't the only woman scorned. As Elli walks the delicate line between a woman finding herself and a woman needing to be found, the days speed up and she knows something's about to go down.
From drug runners to whistleblowers to sea turtle sabotage, Elli stirs up secrets and inadvertently whips a desperate killer into a frenzy. If she doesn't find a way out of the heat, she's going to get burned.
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Elliot Lisbon is the Director of the Ballantyne Foundation, a charitable organization founded by two billionaires who are also her surrogate grandparents - in other words, they're as fond of her as she is of them; and they trust her judgment implicitly. Which is a good thing, because she'll need to use it soon.
The woman baking the centerpiece cakes for the foundation's latest charity rum, the Beach Ball, Juliette Pete, is getting married the next day and Elliot has volunteered the decorations being used as an exchange for the cakes. But when there's going to be a bridal brunch, the maid of honor, Daphne Fischer, doesn't show up. In fact, she's not answering her cell phone and no one can locate her. At first, they think she might have taken an unexpected trip because everything was getting to be too much, but soon it's apparent that's not the case.
Elliot forms teams of people to comb the island for Daphne, fearing the worst. But when she starts to dig into the situation, she discovers there's more to the story: Juliette's grandmother is wed to the groom's, Tucker's, grandfather; so when they met on a reality show and fell in love, it seemed to be destiny. But Daphne was also on the show, and while she wasn't chosen as Tucker's bride, she became fast friends with Juliette and also her roommate.
So it seemed natural that she would also be Juliette's maid-of-honor, but Elliot is discovering that when you dig into a pit, you might not want to see what's at the bottom of it. There's things that are simmering beneath the surface, and if Juliette seems to be unaware of it, Elliot is becoming perhaps too aware of the truth.
With her friend Sid by her side, they want to know what's going on, but both Elliott's boyfriend, Detective Nick Ransom and Sheriff Hill are keeping quiet, and so she decides to pursue it on her own. When the truth does comes out, it's not what anyone ever thought could be, and it might change Elliot forever, in more ways than one...
This is the fifth book in the series, and I've read every one of them. Ms. Lynn can pull you into the story quickly and easily, and once there, you don't want to leave. Her characters are alive and practically jump off the page; and her descriptions of Sea Island make you want to make a trip there to soak up the sun; almost hearing the waves of the ocean as you read.
The mystery is well thought-out and, I have to admit, not even close to anything I've read before, which makes it all the more intriguing. There is plenty of suspense, and almost anyone can be a suspect; which makes it all the more difficult while they are searching for Daphne. But it is the backstory that is the most interesting - of how Tucker and Juliette met and what fated them for the moments that lie in front of them now.
When the ending comes and everything is revealed, there is nothing so tragic as tragedy itself; nothing so sad as a moment lost that cannot be regained. This is indeed a story worth reading; and while we have had to wait some time for this book to be added to the series, the wait was definitely worth it as I feel it is also the best one, and it is a tale I will not soon forget. Highly recommended.
https://www.amazon.com/Shake-Down-Elliott-Lisbon-Mystery/dp/1635115876/ref=
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3343512988
More on Kendel Lynn's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/l/kendel-lynn/
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