Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; [Audio CD]; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781496702562; [9781977354877]
Kensington Publishing; [Tantor Audio]
320 Pages$7.99; [$23.29]; 1.99* Amazon (*Sale)
June 27, 2017
⭐⭐⭐
The quaint fishing village of Salmon Cove, Maine, seems like the ideal location for a girls' weekend with Hayley's gal pals, Liddy and Mona. Liddy's on the rebound from a breakup, but when she meets a handsome tourist, it looks like a little romance might liven things up.
Unfortunately, Liddy's new sweetheart is found dead on the beach the next morning at the town's Lobster Bake, next to an overturned cooking pot. The liberated lobsters may be scrambling back to the sea, but Hayley's not about to let a murderer escape so easily. To crack the case, she'll need to blow the lid off some serious undercover activity -- or risk becoming ensnared in a killer's trap...
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Hayley and her friends Liddy and Mona have decided to take a weekend getaway at Mona's uncle's cabin in Salmon Cove, Maine. But when they arrive, the cabin is worse than anyone thinks -- and the only bathroom is an outhouse. After discovering there's no rooms at the local hotel, Liddy's determined to go back to Bar Harbor. But when she meets an attractive tourist in the lobby, she rethinks her plan and decides to stay for at least one night. But after seeing him at a local bar, she makes plans to be his date for the Lobster Fest, which changes their plans again. But he stands her up and Liddy is angry, because she can't imagine any man doing that...
Meanwhile, Mona reconnects with an old boyfriend, Corey Guildford. While she insists to him she's married, she can't help but feel the same attraction she knew years ago, and agrees to spend time with him -- as friends. So Hayley begins to feel as the third wheel, but decides to stick out the weekend anyway.
When Liddy and Hayley go to the lobsterfest, Hayley sees Liddy's date arguing with the local bar owner. And later on, when they go to the beach, Liddy finds him dead. Not to mention that the local sheriff already has it in for them, and now things have gotten worse. If Hayley doesn't find a killer, they may be on the receiving end of something worse...
This is the ninth book in the series, and unfortunately, it's one of the weakest ones. The mystery isn't until almost half of the book is over, and in the first half you have Liddy and Mona arguing, and Liddy trying to find a new boyfriend, while Mona is reconnecting with an old one, and Hayley is wondering why the sheriff has it in for her.
Liddy appears to be the type of woman who needs to have a man or she isn't happy, and Mona is just contentious all around. So that pretty much leaves Hayley to do everything, and how she stays focused is beyond me. There were things that bothered me: if this is a tourist town in the summer, how is there only one hotel? Shouldn't there be more? Also, if Mona's family owned the cabin for years, why isn't there an indoor bathroom? I can't imagine her mother saying, "Hey! Let's go up to the cabin for the summer, and yay, I get to use an outhouse!" I can't think of any woman who would be okay with this. So that just didn't make sense to me.
Then, Ellie didn't want anyone to recognize her grandpa, but she's flashing a picture of her dad to Hayley? Didn't she think Hayley might recognize him? That just didn't make any sense at all. Just sayin'.
As far as the mystery goes, it was tied in with the rest of the story, so that's a good thing, but it just wasn't my favorite one. I also was rather irritated at the ending, figuring it was a cheap way out of what might have been a good storyline at some point in a future book. It disappointed and saddened me a lot. But I will read the next in the series, because it might be better.
More on Lee Hollis's Books : https://www.fantasticfiction.com/h/lee-hollis/
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