THREAD AND BURIED

A film crew brings drama to a Maine town when the lothario director is killed on set in what’s definitely either an accident or murder.

Picturesque Haven Harbor has drawn a movie crew to film Harbor Heartbreak, and local needlepointer Angie Curtis has been tapped to help with the set design. Though she’s not about to make a big deal about it, Angie’s pretty sure she got the job through her boyfriend, Patrick West, whose mother, Skye, is a movie star slated for a big role in the film. Haven Harbor hasn’t just been picked because it’s pretty; it’s also the original site for the maybe-true events of the story. Longtime resident Ruth Hopkins, who wrote the account the movie’s based on before she learned that all the publishing dollars were in spicy romance novels, is on hand to help make her vision a reality. But the real driving force behind the film is director Marv Mason, who’s put all his energy into ensuring the success of his stars, for example by showering the film’s young lead actress, Cos Curran, with predatory romantic attention. Ick. Angie is on set one day when Marv is literally knocked off by a boom mic that pushes him backward off a rocky cliff. Though it’s obvious that Marv wasn’t well-loved, Angie wonders whether anyone hated him enough to kill him. Drawing on her background as a private eye and her experience solving crimes (Thread on Arrival, 2018, etc.), she questions the film’s crew. She’s certain the drama and death are coming from the outsiders, but which of them?

Reading Wait’s Maine-centric cozy is like watching a movie on TV versus going to the theater: fine but not must-see.