Linda Greenlaw’s debut mystery novel introduces the very likeable Jane Bunker, a successful homicide detective from Miami who returns to her hometown. Jane hopes her new job as a marine insurance investigator, as well as her new home will prove less stressful.
The sleepy and beautiful village of Green Haven, Maine is not what Jane expected as her first job will mean finding out why the town drunk has washed up on the shore and with the back of his head smashed in. Although Jane is there to investigate the safety of some of the boats she can’t help but follow the clues to solve the murder.
Of course it won’t be easy to solve the murder and as Jane digs deeper she realizes that even in a small village she can’t escape unpleasant business. So not only does she have to report her findings on some businesses and possibly make some enemies but she’ll have to start watching her back as well.
No small town mystery novel can be complete without a solid cast of characters and I think Greenlaw did a great job with some of the minor characters. My favorites were the elderly owners of the souvenir shop who seem to be tipsy half of the time and don’t think twice about eavesdropping on telephone conversations.
Perhaps Greenlaw’s strongest point though is in her descriptions of the fishing, boating and everything to do with the sea. For example,
“The morning air was so clear that it hadn’t taken long for the sun, now well above the horizon, to penetrate and soften patches of sand between the ledges steeping in the tepid yellow light. This late-June sunshine infused the mud, barnacles, and seaweed with warmth enough to send wafts of musty air in the opposite direction. The incoming tide licked rings of salt from rocks along the shore and quenched its thirst in pools that had been left by the last ebb. Herring gulls left perches and worked feverishly over a school of bait fish that simmered in a malformed oval of the harbor’s surface off the end of the pier.
Don't you feel as if you were right there on the shore? This was a fast and fun read and it will be interesting to see what awaits Jane Bunker in the next book.
Added 08/07