MURDER ON MUSTANG BEACH

Murder disrupts a bookseller’s love life while complicating her deepening reconnection to her childhood home on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

After waiting nearly a year for Toby Dodge to complete his self-imposed experiment in abstinence, Calista “Callie” Padget is eager for what she calls “the most epic first date ever” with the handsome martial arts teacher she’s been patiently wooing for the past 11 months. She can’t believe it when on the morning of that date, she and Toby find a body gazing lifelessly at the ceiling of his dojo, Cattail Family Martial Arts. More than their relationship is at stake, since families rush to pull out of the dojo’s programs once they learn that Seth Goodnow, the bridegroom in a Cattail Island destination wedding, met his end there shortly after saying his vows. So Callie summons the detective skills she discovered in Smile Beach Murder (2022) to prove that Seth’s death had nothing to do with Toby’s business. When she interviews members of the wedding party, including Seth’s brand-new widow, she learns that she isn’t the only one captivated by the magic of Cattail Island. Despite their grief, none of them are willing to leave the gentle pace of the island and its wild natural beauty. Just as Callie struggles with learning that, thanks to the boom in tourism, her meager salary at MotherVine Bookshop won’t begin to cover her rent at the tiny Hyde Road cottage where she grew up, the wedding guests confide their difficulty reconciling their horror at Seth’s murder with their growing attachment to Cattail. All good things must end, and with grief for some, as Callie’s sleuthing skills once again crack a case that baffles the police.

A worthy successor to Bessette’s Outer Banks debut.