Author: Lee Hollis
Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781496736512
Kensington Cozies
320 Pages
$8.99; $6.99 Amazon
July 25, 2023
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Food and cocktails columnist Hayley Powell usually reserves judgement for local cuisine, not the people who serve it. But staying neutral isn't so easy when caught between the biggest seafood rivals in town -- her BFF Mona Barnes and the successful Leighton clan. Adding to a bitter decades-old surf-turf war between family businesses, a modern Romeo and Juliet story unfolds as Mona's son gets engaged to the daughter of her sworn enemy...
Spiteful patriarch Lonnie Leighton is also steamed about the arrangement -- enough to go to dangerous lengths to break it up. At least, until he's discovered face down and dead in the clam flats. With unanswered questions swirling, accusations flying in both directions, and a young couple stuck in the middle, Hayley has bigger fish to fry than determining who sources the best shellfish in Bar Harbor. Because someone wanted to get away with murder...and send whoever else gets in their way to a muddy grave.
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Hayley Powell writes a food and cocktails column for the Island Times, the local newspaper where her husband Bruce works as a crime writer. She also has the pleasure of owning her own restaurant, Hayley's Kitchen, which has become popular with the locals and tourists alike since she opened it several months ago. It doesn't leave her a lot of free time to spend with her hubby, but they're both so busy, she doesn't think too much about it.
One morning while walking her dog Leroy, she sees two women fighting in the mud flats below, a popular clamming area. To her horror, one of them is her BFF Mona Barnes, who owns her own successful seafood company. The other is Vera Leighton, whose father owns the other seafood company in town. Determined to break it up, she heads to the bottom to find out what started the fight. When she finally succeeds, there's no comfort in it, since the two women have been rivals their entire lives, and their father hates the Barnes -- and the feeling is mutual.
But things get worse when it's discovered that Mona's son Dougie is in love with Lonnie's daughter Olive, and wants to propose to her. Worse yet, they're at Hayley's restaurant when Lonnie walks in with his girlfriend and spots them across the room. Accusations fly, and Lonnie tells Dougie to stay away from his daughter. When Mona finds out, all heck breaks loose. Then there's a murder, and now Hayley is in the middle of that, along with trying to keep peace between Mona and her sons. But it won't be easy, especially since the older two have secrets of their own. To make matters worse, an old girlfriend of Bruce's shows up and she's rich and successful...which has Hayley worried and jealous. Will she be able to find a murderer? Will she be able to keep her marriage? Will there be any peace in Bar Harbor ever again?
This is the sixteenth book in the series, and I've read them all. It's nice to see Mona's family as the center of activity, since they've usually been fringe characters up until now. We get to see that they have lives even their mother doesn't know about. But it's Dougie who takes center stage as a possible suspect, and Hayley has to find a killer to prove the young man's innocence. But when a killer thinks that they're smarter than you, and they've covered their tracks well, it might not be easy as she imagines.
Then there's the ex of Bruce, who keeps 'running into him' and he's flattered by all the attention that she's giving him. Hayley, who at first decided she liked the woman, is finding that she was wrong in her assessment, and is trying to prove to herself she's not jealous. But this is a problem she's never had to deal with before, so jealousy is a normal reaction for her. Watching Hayley, who's always been so confident, deal with a different emotion is interesting, but luckily, it doesn't pervade the story so never gets in the way of the mystery.
And the mystery is prime in this book. There are clues throughout, and I was down to two suspects (yes, one of them was the guilty party) when Hayley began to put everything together. How she does it is the best part, and even Sergio is there with his malapropisms. It's a fun ride in another adventure for Hayley, and for those who love clams (I don't, unfortunately) there are tons of yummy recipes included. (I wonder if any of them can be adapted for crab???). Highly recommended.
I received an advance copy from the publisher and NetGalley but this in no way influenced my review.
More on Lee Hollis's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/h/lee-hollis/
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