A Downeast Maine Mystery Series

Closeknit family, delectable food, and savvy sleuthing are what picturesque Halibut Cove, Maine’s three generations of Holbrook women are all about, in the latest novel in this colorful cozy mystery series . . .

A brutal late-summer drought has befallen Halibut Cove. The future of the Whitcomb family farm is especially worrisome as its blueberry barrens struggle under the relentless sun. Then a charismatic financier arrives in town, offering Henry Whitcomb a tempting loan he claims will save the day. But matriarch Maggie Holbrook is skeptical of the man’s motives. And she’s not alone.

As the temperature rises, so do tensions among divided residents, as well as anxious workers. Even police chief Jill Holbrook, Maggie’s daughter, finds herself caught in the middle. Hoping to cool heads, Jill’s daughter, Audrey, helps organize a fundraiser featuring a blueberry buckle supper using the farm’s remaining harvest—a reminder of the town’s shared roots. But jealousies, disputes, and cruel personal attacks soon infect the gathering. And when a body is found among the blueberry bushes the next morning, the farm is imperiled further.

Whether the death was an accident is unclear. As unanswered questions and possible scenarios multiply, another body is found near the same location. This time it’s clearly murder. And when a shocking arrest is made, the Holbrook women set out to unearth the truth—before someone else loses more than the
farm . . .

The first in a brand new, multi-generational cozy mystery series introduces three generations of strong, no-nonsense women who head the Holbrook family seafood dynasty in Downeast Maine…and a murder the Holbrook matriarch and her granddaughter must solve, even as it entangles them in a web of small-town secrets, and a Hatfields and McCoys-level chowder rivalry.

Ever since Halibut Cove’s popular eatery, The Chowder House, started serving matriarch Maggie Holbrook’s famous clam chowder it’s been in high demand. Cooked up at the restaurant by Maggie’s ambitious 19-year-old granddaughter, Audrey, the dish even has a regular nightly customer, retiree Chips Hogan. . . . Until one fateful Sunday night.

After serving Chips his chowder, Audrey rushes off to Maggie’s hilltop home for the weekly family dinner with the rest of the Holbrooks—her three uncles, and her mom, Jill. But before the meal’s end, Jill, a police chief, gets an alarming call. Chips has been found in the street—dead. Jill races out to investigate . . . and is shocked to learn Chips’ chowder was poisoned.

When a Chowder House server recalls seeing local diner cook Waldo Duggan in the alley that same evening, he becomes a suspect. And when it’s uncovered that Waldo bitterly believed the Holbrooks stole the lucrative chowder recipe from the Duggans in the 1930’s, he’s only further implicated . . .

Despite everything, Maggie can’t believe Waldo would murder anyone. For fair-minded Maggie, to keep an innocent man out of jail, and to ease Audrey’s guilt over serving the chowder, there’s no choice but to team-up to crime solve. Soon grandmother and granddaughter are immersed in a stew of rivalries, long held feuds, and looming threats. Because beneath the surface, even a pretty town has its ugly side . . .