ALICIA BESSETTE
How acquired: Borrowed from my local library.
First line: Running the Mustang Beach footpath was the sweetest kind of torture.
(Goodreads synopsis below.)
My thoughts: I think I liked this second book in the series a little better than the first book. Partly because I really liked the friendship that developed between Callie and Geri-Lynn, the caretaker of the Mustang Beach sanctuary. Geri-Lynn was a great addition to the cast of characters, and her love for and dedication to the mustangs made me appreciate her. Callie really needed a good friend, and while I had hoped during the first book that Officer Fusco would become one, it didn’t happen.
The story opens eleven months after the events of the first book, and Callie and Toby have spent a lot of time together, learning everything there is to know about each other. Toby’s one year self-imposed moratorium on romantic relationships is about to come to an end, and Callie is very much looking forward to having a first date and a first kiss. So of course a dead body is found in Toby’s martial arts studio and the heat – a different kind of heat – is on. And of course Callie can’t sit idly by and let the police solve the murder, so her investigative journalist skills are called upon once again as she begins her own investigation. And of course she puts herself in danger again.
I’m really hoping there will be a third book.
Synopsis from Goodreads:
When a killer stirs up trouble in the Outer Banks, amateur sleuth and bookseller Callie Padget is on the case, in a new beachside mystery from author Alicia Bessette.
Cattail Island in the Outer
Banks is a popular destination for honeymooners and nature lovers
alike. So it is a huge blow when the murder of a newlywed grinds the
pre-summer season to a screeching halt. Bookseller Callie Padget
launches her own investigation, after mysterious customer Geri-Lynn
Humfeld, caretaker of the island’s protected wild horses, brings in
an irresistible piece of information.
Determined to
restore order and safety to her beloved hometown, Callie searches for
answers—even as those answers cast suspicion on her soon-to-be
boyfriend, Toby Dodge, whose martial arts studio was the scene of the
crime. As she digs deeper, Toby becomes the police’s prime suspect.
The truth raises troubling questions and sends her scouring the
bookshop’s shelves for guidance.
Meanwhile, a well-loved
member of the mustang herd—a pregnant mare whose anticipated foal
is a symbol of summery hope for locals and visitors alike—may be
facing dire circumstances. With help from Geri-Lynn, Callie unearths
startling secrets surrounding not only the compromised mare, but the
murdered newlywed, too. And when another body shows up, this time on
isolated Mustang Beach, she must race against time to stop a killer
from claiming any more innocent lives.
