Readers might want to slide on their flip-flops and pour a glass of sweet tea before sitting down to enjoy Smile Beach Murder.
Author Alicia Bessette skillfully captures the laid-back ambience of Cattail Island, North Carolina, in the first of the Outer Banks Bookshop mysteries. It’s like a virtual visit to a barrier island.
Callie Padgett has returned home to Cattail after being laid off from her newspaper reporting job in Charlotte. Though she loves the place, it holds sad memories for her. Callie’s mother jumped or fell off the island’s lighthouse when Callie was just a kid. But she’s got to regroup somewhere, so she’s back living in her Uncle Hudson’s loft and working in the island’s quaint downtown at MotherVine Books. One of Callie’s duties there is writing Instagram posts under the guise of the bookstore cat, Tin Man.
The cat’s adorable, but it’s all still kind of a yawn.
Then, suddenly, Eva Meeks, the sister of an old friend, is found dead outside the lighthouse. Did she jump—or was she pushed?
Callie plunges into investigator mode. Eva had told her about a treasure hunt clue she had found in her garden, and that leads Callie deep into Cattail’s history. She uncovers important information before the police do, does battle with the local newspaper and tangles with the community’s most prominent resident.
But before she can put the pieces of this puzzle together, there’s another murder.
Smile Beach Murder is a fast-paced cozy with likable characters, an unbeatable setting and a romance to boot. Callie falls for martial arts teacher Toby Dodge, who has sworn off relationships for a year after a bad breakup. I’m just hoping that he’ll be ready to pick things up with Callie in book two of the series.
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