Author: Lynn Cahoon
Genre: Mystery
Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781516111732
Lyrical Press
250 Pages
$18.95; $9.99 Amazon
June 4, 2024
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In the coastal town of South Cove, June is tourist season -- and wedding season. Unfortunately, Jill Gardner's own wedding has been delayed. but that just gives her more time to search for a missing bride -- and a killer...
Things are looking up for the owner of Coffee, Books, and More -- Jill's finally getting her MBA, and though her wedding to police detective Greg is postponed a few months, she still has plenty to celebrate. A girls' weekend in Santa Barbara is just the ticket. But back in South Cove, someone else's big day has become a big problem. Antiques dealer Josh Thomas and Mandy Jensen were planning a small private ceremony under an olive tree on the historic Jensen farm -- until Mandy went missing....
Is this a case of a runaway bride -- or a guilty groom? Greg zeroes in on Josh but finds him so annoying that he quietly asks Jill's help in keeping his number-one suspect distracted. She knows that Josh is searching for something else besides his fiancée -- a bank robber's buried gold bullion. And when the professor he'd been discussing it with turns up dead, she can't help wondering if what looked like cold feet was actually cold-blooded murder...
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South Cove is having their business-to-business meeting at Jill Gardner's Coffee, Books, and More; everything seems fine until Josh Thomas, the local antiques dealer and problem child, stands up to make an announcement. Most think he just has another problem, but this announcement is different -- he and his fiancée, Mandy Jensen, are getting married in a month and he wants to invite everyone to the reception. Congratulations all around, and life seems to go back to normal.
That is, until Mandy disappears. Completely. But Jill's friends and her own fiancé, Police Chief Greg King, wants her to go on her girlfriends' weekend getaway and not worry about it. But things have already gotten sticky -- she finds out Josh has a journal of an old bank robber who settled in South Cove, and it might be the real deal. So real, Jill's former professor is interested in pursuing it. While she tries to enjoy herself, things keep popping up that just don't seem like Mandy; a missed wedding dress appointment, for starters.
Jill returns home and finds that Mandy is still missing, and Josh is going crazy; so much so that Greg asks her to keep him company so he can get work done. But Josh drags Jill into his hunt for the bank robber's hidden treasure, and there are other circumstances that make her wonder if Mandy's disappearance isn't connected to it somehow.
Now Jill has to worry about her own wedding plans as well as figure out where Mandy is. Greg, meanwhile, is involved in a murder case -- one that might connect the dots. Will Jill be able to get her wedding on track? And will they figure out what happened to Mandy and who killed the dead man?
This is the sixteenth book in the series and I have read them all. I love the characters of South Cove, they are realistic and believable. You are drawn into the story from the beginning, and kept there throughout the mystery. It is written well, and Ms. Cahoon has a talent for words and descriptions of what we are reading (and imagining).
Everything is twisted together loosely, and it is up to the reader to pull the threads together to find the answers before Jill (as we know that she will!). I will say that I was surprised at who the murderer was; it was totally unexpected, which is a very good thing. The disappearance of Mandy was also handled well, and it gave us a great story.
The ending comes together beautifully, with everything just as it should be; there are new beginnings and goodbyes (sort of); and it makes us want to read the next in the series immediately. Recommended.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley but this in no way influenced my review.
More on Lynn Cahoon's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/lynn-cahoon/
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