Author: Barbara Ross
Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781496735690
Kensington Publishing
288 Pages
$8.99; $6.99 Amazon
June 28, 2022
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Mud season takes on a whole new meaning in the coastal town of Busman's Harbor, Maine, when local business owners sling dirt at one another in a heated feud over a proposed pedestrian mall. Vandalism is one thing, but murder means Julia Snowden of the Snowden Family Clambake steps in to clean up the case...
When Julia spots police cars in front of Lupine Design, she races over. Her sister Livvie works there as a potter. Livvie is unharmed but surrounded by smashed up pottery. The police find the owner Zoey Butterfield digging clay by a nearby bay, but she has no idea who would target her store. Zoey is a vocal advocate for turning four blocks of Main Street into a pedestrian mall on summer weekends. Other shop owners, including her next-door neighbor are vehemently opposed. Could a small-town fight provoke such destruction? When a murder follows the break-in, it's up to Julia to dig through the secrets and lies to uncover the truth...
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Julia Snowden helps her family run the Snowden Family Clambake in later spring and summer, when it's warm enough to go out to Morrow Island, which they own. But during the winter and early spring, she's at a loss. Having recently broken up with her long-time boyfriend Chris and moved back home with her mother, she's lonely and wondering how to fill her days. One morning she sees police cars in front of Lupine Designs, where her sister Livvie works in the off-season, and hopes she's alright.
When she arrives, Livvie is fine, but someone has broken into the pottery shop and destroyed everything in view. When the owner, Zoey Butterfield, arrives, she has no idea who would vandalize her shop...unless it might be her neighbor Finney, who shares part of the building as an antique store and dislikes Zoey. But there's no proof, so Zoey is stumped. Later that evening Julia attends a town meeting where Zoey is in favor of a pedestrian mall on the weekends to bring in more business, but many of the townspeople are against it. This only agitates the problems between Zoey and her neighbors.
When, soon after, a body is found in Zoey's basement, the state police -- Lieutenant Binder and Sergeant Flynn -- think Zoey is a prime suspect, and Livvie asks for Julia's help in proving her innocence. But Julia will need more to go on, since she knows next-to-nothing about Zoey. Where is she from? Who are her people? What motives did she have? And more importantly, did she do it?
On top of this, everyone -- including Julia -- is wondering where her personal life is going now that Chris isn't in her life anymore. It's obvious there are some men interested in her, but will Julia go down that path, or put it on the back burner for now? And will she discover who the murderer might be before it's too late for another person?...
This is the tenth book in the series, and I have read them all, looking forward to each one with practical glee. Each book gets better than the former, and this one is no different. Julia is on her own this time out, without Chris in her life, and her family wants to help her -- even if she doesn't want it. When the murder occurs, it's only natural that Julia's innate curiosity -- and cleverness -- get her moving in on the investigation. By this time Binder and Flynn have given up telling her to leave it alone, knowing she isn't going to, but aren't giving her information without anything in return, either. A quid pro quo situation, if you will.
So we have Julia trying to find out more about the elusive Zoey Butterfield, who doesn't appear to be letting the murder bother her; staying calm and collected. Julia wonders why this is so, and starts digging into Zoey's past, with surprising results. She also does her best at quietly questioning people who might have known the deceased well, with more surprising results coming from that quarter, too.
But what starts out as a murder investigation becomes much more so, with threads scattered throughout the mystery, and each one leading to another until we have a tangle of them, all sizes and shapes, that need to be pulled out and woven into something resembling answers. Julia is an expert at this, and it's fun watching her put everything together in only the way she can.
I absolutely adore this series, and all the characters within. There are some surprising things around the corner for Julia, too; and I won't say any more about this except that I think it will be something worth waiting for in the next book. When the murderer is discovered, the motive is both rather twisted and sad, and is never worth the price that one has to pay. I eagerly look forward to the next in the series. Highly recommended.
I received an advance copy from the publisher and NetGalley but this in no way influenced my review.
More on Barbara Ross's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/r/barbara-ross/
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