Island of Last Resorts

June 25, 2018
At the start of this muddled series launch from Ellis (the Secrets of the South series), fledgling PI Kate Weller leaves her home in Savannah, Ga., for a party on Tybee Island hosted by a client, but she has good reason to worry her troubled past is catching up with her. Sure enough, en route, Kate’s car is forced off the highway in a spray of bullets. Reluctant to cooperate with the police, Kate is glad to escape on her first official case to Charleston, S.C., in search of a liver transplant patient’s sister. Kate takes a room over a restaurant and promptly gets “tangled up with a handsome chef whose family history sounded like a Mario Puzo movie.” When the chef’s father is arrested for murder, Kate decides to handle that case, too. Her investigative technique relies on bursting into tears (thus getting policemen to share information), calling the computer whiz back at the agency to find difficult addresses, and going to lunch with the chef’s gossipy grandma. A mishmash of backstory bogs down this unwieldy mix of action and romance. Agent: Nicole Resciniti, Seymour Agency.

July 1, 2018

Soon after she's taken on as a traveling private investigator for Price Investigations, 25-year-old Kate Weller is hunted down by men linked to her brother, imprisoned in Florida. While Kate's boss agrees to keep her on, he sends her to Charleston, SC, under a new name, Jill Wyatt, to track down the sister of an adopted woman who is now desperate for a new liver. She also takes an interest in the troubles of her landlord's family when their Italian restaurant suffers petty vandalism and then arson that traps Jill in her apartment upstairs. When her sexy landlord's father is arrested for murder, she sets out to prove his innocence. VERDICT Ellis (Sunset in Old Savannah) spins off her "Secrets of the South" series with a new protagonist working for the same detective agency. As in her previous books, the author joins romantic suspense with faith-based overtones. Ellis's readers will enjoy the overlap, while others may find the immature but spirited Jill to be an awkward sleuth with good intentions.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2019
Nate Price, his employees at Price Investigations, and their spouses or significant others have been invited to exclusive Elysian Island off the coast of Georgia by a rich client, billionaire Julian Frazier, for a company retreat, with the only proviso that they solve a fictional mystery play. Once on the island, the group soon learns that the mystery is actually a real-life cold case, and there is no way to leave the island or contact the outside world until they solve it. Surrounded by heavily armed mercenaries, the group works to solve the mystery as they uncover horror after horror. Meanwhile, Kate Weller, a detective with Price Investigations, and her boyfriend, Eric, who missed the boat to the island due to a family emergency, can't understand why their texts to Nate and Frazier's yacht captain go unanswered. Kate begins to believe something is very wrong on the island and decides she must rescue her colleagues, although the local authorities decline to help her. Fast pacing, multiple points of view, and plot twists distinguish this eerie mystery, with its strong, well-delineated cast of characters.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2018
Something in PI Kate Weller's past puts her in danger. So the newest member of Price Investigations in Natchez, Mississippi, decides to hide in plain sight on her new assignment in Charleston, where she rents a room above the Manfredis' family-owned restaurant, Bella Trattoria, and takes the name Jill Wyatt. Her task is to find the biological sister of adoptee Charlotte Sugarman, who's near death from liver failure but unable to find a matching organ donor. But once having found Charlotte's sister, Ella Norris, Jill discovers that the donor situation is complicated by the devout Norris family's Christian Science religion. Meanwhile, Jill is dealing with her mutual attraction to chef Eric Manfredi as she is increasingly drawn into the voluble family's affairs. Ellis, who has several series to her credit, here launches the Marked for Retribution mysteries. Further entries are bound to explore the past of adoptee Kate and her adoptive brother, Liam, who's serving a prison sentence in Florida. This should appeal to readers looking for mystery with a touch of religion as they follow the exploits of sometimes naive and headstrong Kate.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)