Author: Sherry Harris
Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781496734389
Kensington Cozies
320 Pages
$8.99; $6.99 Amazon
December 27, 2022
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The Florida Panhandle Barback Games are coming up and Chloe's been drafted to represent the Sea Glass Saloon -- competing in various obstacle-course events that conclude with rolling an empty keg up a hill. The rivalries are so fierce that some of the participating bars even stoop to bringing in ringers.
Meanwhile, Chloe's friend Ann -- a descendant of the famed pirate Jean Lafitte -- asks her to come along for a boat ride as Ann dives into the Gulf of Mexico. She's found some old papers that may identify the location of sunken treasure. Instead, she finds a sunken body -- one of the ringers hired for the Barback Games. Now that murder is in the mix, Chloe has to figure out whether one of the competitors went overboard...
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Chloe Jackson goes to work one morning and discovers that her boss, Vivi, and her coworker Joaquin have signed her up for the Barback Games. It's a competitive game, so much so that some of the other bars in the area have hired ringers -- professional athletes -- for the competition. This doesn't sit well with Vivi, and she wants Chloe to go undercover and check them out. But instead one of them, Enrique, seems to be checking out Chloe.
Once the three she's been visiting discover who she is, they come to the Sea Glass to confront her. But her friend Ann Williams is there also -- and she recognizes Enrique from a long time ago when he assaulted her. Things don't look good for either of them, so Ann leaves. But later Ann asks Chloe if she'll come with her as support when she plans a dive to find an old shipwreck of her ancestor, pirate Jean Lafitte. Instead of finding sunken treasure, she finds a sunken body, and now both Chloe and Ann are persons of interest in death.
Trying not to make things worse for herself, she continues to help Ann on her personal quest and finds not only murder, but intrigue, suspicions, secrets, and break-ins along with adventure and excitement. Wanting to stay above the law, but caught in the web of Ann's life, she wants to be part of this exploration also.
Then there's also the fact that she's falling for Rip, and hard. Does she tell him or allow things to go as slow as they have been? Not wanting to keep her involvement in the shipwreck from him, but not wanting to break a promise to Ann has her warring with herself. Which one will win out in the end? And will she finally be charged in the murder?...
This is the fourth book in the series, and I have read them all. This just might be the best one of the group. I was as drawn to the action as Chloe was herself. Watching her try to juggle her relationship, her involvement in the Barback Games and the lure of the excitement of finding a pirate ship was enough in itself, but the murder only added to it. She's determined to find the killer, because if she doesn't, she could be sent away for complicity in the crime.
There's so much going on, but it's all easy enough to keep straight; nothing overlaps so much that you can't follow the action. And there's plenty of that. My favorite, of course, would be looking for the pirate ship (who wouldn't want to?) but we must solve the murder first. Who would want to kill this person? It turns out that plenty of people would. Their past seemed to follow them, and they left unhappy people behind (I will say no more as to not spoil the book for others as to whom the dead person might be).
We learn slightly more about Ann in this book, and I have always found her an intriguing character, so of course I was interested; but not enough to give us everything, leaving her with her secrets. This is as it should be.
When the ending comes and the killer is revealed, it's both sad and understandable; while there is no excuse for killing, sometimes we need to think things out. And yet -- the ending gives us something very good to look forward to, and makes us want to read the next in the series now. If you haven't read this series before, you can start with this book, but it would be better if you read the first in the series, From Beer To Eternity. Highly recommended.
I received an advanced copy from the publisher and NetGalley but this in no way influenced my review.
More on Sherry Harris's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/h/sherry-harris/
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