Sweet Tea and Secrets

April 15, 2019
A suspicious handyman, a cold case, and a current murder leave a former tour guide confused but determined. Callie Aspen is back in Heart's Harbor, Maine, to help her great-aunt Iphy with her literary-themed tea shop and her responsibilities maintaining magnificent Haywood Hall as a venue for activities. Iphy rents her a fixer-upper cottage and puts up a notice for a handyman. It's answered by Quinn, a complete stranger whom at least Callie's Boston terrier, Daisy, likes. Conflicted about her decision to move and give up a job she loved, Callie recalls her Christmas visit (In Peppermint Peril, 2018), when she and Deputy Falk hit it off, and wishes he hadn't cooled off. When Falk shows up looking for a missing border collie, they find him together, but Callie temporarily hands the dog over to Quinn since the owners no longer want it. Callie has offered to organize her great-aunt's Fourth of July tea party, and Quinn suggests she read back issues of the local paper to find material for the "living history" theme; that's how she finds a story from 1989 about the mysterious disappearance of actress Monica Walker, whose stay at the Cliff Hotel was troubled by a former lover hounding her. Monica and a fishing boat vanished, never to be found. Did she sail off, or was she murdered? Journalist Joe Jamison fobs off Callie and Quinn with platitudes but later admits to Callie that he knows things he's unwilling to share with Quinn. When Jamison turns up murdered, Quinn's furious with Callie for making him a suspect. For her part, she's angered by all the lies he's told her. Intrigued by the long-missing actress, Callie interviews everyone she can find who was around when she vanished and wonders whether the secrets she's unearthed will lead to a conclusion or another death. Not much of a mystery, though there are plenty of suspicious characters, romantic overtones, and two delightful canines.

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April 22, 2019
Avon’s pleasant, if flawed, sequel to 2018’s In Peppermint Peril finds former tour guide Callie Aspen undecided whether she wants to live permanently in the lovely seaside town of Heart’s Harbor, Maine, and help her great-aunt Iphy run Book Tea, a book-themed tea shop. Looking for a spectacular historical event to relate at the town’s Independence Day festival, Callie discovers a 30-year-old mystery concerning Monica Walker, a TV star who disappeared while vacationing in Heart’s Harbor. Joe Jamison, the editor of the local paper, seems particularly disturbed by Callie’s investigation, so when Joe is found dead, Callie is certain that the cold case and the present-day murder are connected. Beloved cozy tropes include a plucky young woman starting a new life, a handsome but distant deputy sheriff, a cadre of charming local folks, and a couple of lovable pooches. Too bad the ending feels so contrived. Hopefully, Avon will improve next time out. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary.

May 1, 2019
Callie Aspen leaves her job as a tour guide to historical places to move to Heart's Harbor, Maine, to help her great-aunt Iphy run Book Tea, a cozy, mystery-themed tearoom?her first task being to prepare a Fourth of July party for the town at a local mansion. Callie also hopes to pursue a promising romantic relationship with Deputy Ace Falk, whom she assisted in identifying a murderer during the previous Christmas season. Once in Heart's Harbor, Callie begins to miss her former job and finds Falk is rather distant. As she settles in, the handyman she hires to update her cottage, Quinn, manipulates her into becoming involved in a cold case involving actress Monica Walker, who disappeared without a trace 30 years before. When a longtime resident is murdered, Callie and Falk believe the case is connected to Walker's disappearance. The coastal Maine setting, along with an engaging plot and a sympathetic cast, should draw fans of Leslie Meier's Lucy Stone series, which sometimes employs holiday themes and is also set in small-town Maine.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)