DEATH OF A CLAM DIGGER

When her best friend’s sworn enemy dies, a restaurateur digs into a case with some surprising connections.

Hayley’s Kitchen, the restaurant local food columnist Hayley Powell owns, is such a staple of the Bar Harbor food industry that not even the nemesis of her good friend Mona Barnes can stay away. In spite of Lonnie Leighton’s ongoing war over all things seafood with Mona, he can’t resist the many iterations of clams on Hayley’s menu, though his temper challenges his ability to keep his truce with Mona. It’s not as if Mona has her own temper in check, and the two almost ignite the place in a firestorm of anger when they find out that Mona’s son Dougie is engaged to Olive, one of Lonnie’s three daughters. It might just be the first thing Mona and Lonnie have ever agreed on. Before the dust can settle on the news and the outraged parents can decide how to punish their erstwhile offspring, Hayley discovers Lonnie’s body in the dunes, presumably having keeled over while he was clamming. Worse still, Dougie might be implicated in this mess. Mona insists that Hayley do some digging of her own—metaphorically, of course—and draw on her past success in solving mysteries to help her. The profusion of both Hayley’s food columns and her cocktail and clam recipes throughout leaves just enough room for Hayley to solve the case as she’s giving readers ideas for dinner.

Like her heroine’s chatty columns, this is for those who want their murder with a side of personal drama. And lots of clams.