This is supposed to be the first in a series of Maine Clambake Mysteries. Julia leaves her big-city job in a Manhattan venture capital firm to return to Maine to help out her family who are in danger of losing not only their Family Clambake business and her mother's home, but an island that had been in the family for several generations. Several years with poor profits due to both weather and the bad economy has caused the business to be unable to pay off their loans. Julia makes a deal with the bank to refinance their loan, depending on having a good season this year to pay it off.
To increase the profit potential, Julia adds wedding catering to the usual clambakes. On the first wedding job they have, a body is discovered on their island, which is where they hold the clambakes. The police close down the business until they can finish investigating, which causes Julia to "help" the police, so their business can open up as soon as possible.
I found this to be an enjoyable read. I appreciated the descriptions of the beautiful Maine coastal regions, and the mystery was well written. I also liked that Julia's main emphasis was on getting the business open again and running it, with her investigation only an end to that goal, and not her prime motivation.
I'm looking forward to reading other books in this series. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good mystery.
This book was in my TBR pile, and is part of my 2014 Mt. TBR Challenge , my Crusin' Thru the Cozies Challenge and also my 2014 Jan. mini-challenge on Goodreads.
Glad you liked this one, Marj. I have it on my Kindle and I'm hoping to read it this year, too.
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