Stars: 4 out of 5
Pros: Strong characters; twisty mystery
Cons: Pacing a little off near the beginning
The Bottom Line:
Billionaire in town
Sets up mystery filled with
Characters I love
Start of Tourist Season Derailed by Murder
Each series author is different in their timeline. Some authors let us pop into the lives of
their characters so far apart that the characters age in roughly real time. And some authors set their books close to
each other time wise. That’s what
Barbara Ross does with her Maine Clambake series. Stowed Away is the sixth book in the series, but it’s been a very murderous year
for main character Julia Snowden since it opens just about a year after the
first in the series.
It’s June once again, and Julia and her family are getting
ready to reopen the Snowden Family Clambake for the season. They are also discussing what to do with the
ruins of Windsholme, the mansion that is on the island where they take their
customers for the clambake. Julia’s
mother wants to rebuild it, but Julia thinks they’d be better off tearing it
down.
Julia is surprised to discover that the woman coming in to
consult on the project is Wyatt Jayne.
Wyatt was Julia’s first roommate at her high school prep school, but
their shared past makes Julia wary of the woman.
Wyatt is in town thanks to billionaire Geoffrey Bower, a man
who lives on a yacht. Geoffrey is having
his yacht completely updated, and Wyatt is overseeing that project as
well. However, when a dead body shows up
on the ship, Julia finds herself being drawn into the case for a very personal
reason. What happened on board the
yacht?
This book features several sub-plots that weave in and out
of the main mystery. Unfortunately, I
felt like they took too much of the focus early on in the book, delaying the
murder. Now, don’t misunderstand, I
found these stories just as interesting since they concerned Julia and the
other series regulars, plus we were meeting the suspects during this time.
Once the dead body is found, things do kick into high
gear. I was very intrigued by the twists
that happened along the way, including a couple that really surprised me. The ending was satisfying, which is an
amazing feat considering some of the twists along the way, and how Julia
arrived there showed some great deduction.
There is a reason that I mentioned the series timeline at
the start of this book. It is very
interesting to watch the series regulars’ relationships develop as the series
goes along. In this case, I’m definitely
glad that each book is only a month or two apart because it allows us a chance
to really see these relationships grow.
We get a few surprises in the supporting characters in this book as a
result of the subplots, which is something I truly loved. And have I mentioned yet how much I love this
cast of characters? They are so real and
so much fun to visit. We get plenty of
time with the suspects, of course. They
all get their moment to shine and therefore confuse us until the very end.
The book features three recipes at the end, two that will
have seafood lovers’ mouths water, and one for those of us who don’t enjoy
seafood.
Watching these characters grow and change is always a
delight, and fans of the series will be happy to visit them once again in Stowed Away. And if you haven’t yet found this delightful
series, you really do need to fix that today.
Book another visit with Julia in the rest of the Maine Clambake
Mysteries.
NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.
I really love this series and I was ready to be unhappy about 4 stars instead of 5.I really enjoyed reading your review and Stowed Away is on my want list. Ruth Nixon
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