I love visiting the fictional Browards' Rock, a barrier island off the coast of South Carolina near Beaufort in Carolyn Hart's Death on Demand series. Everyone there seems to be rich and live in really, really nice houses with spectacular ocean or marsh views with the requisite Lexuses, Porsches, Maseratis and Rolls Royces to match. (The island is so small, one wonders why these cars aren't constantly running into each other!) Of course, there are the few token lower and middle class folks who provide the services to the island (which, curiously enough, only seems to have one restaurant - Parotti's Grill & Bait Shop!). What they do have is a fabulous mystery book shop run by amateur sleuth Annie Darling - Death on Demand. If it really existed, I'd be on the ferry to Broward's Rock to visit it in a heartbeat the next time I'm up in Beaufort.
The most recent addition to this cozy series is Death Comes Silently (#202). After the wealthy island resident Everett Hathaway drowns in a tragic kayaking incident on a cold December night in a quiet harbor, his death is ruled an accident. That is, until a volunteer at the Better Times thrift store finds an incriminating note tucked away in the pocket of the sports coat Mr. Hathaway was wearing the day of his death. She is found dead at Better Times later that afternoon after she leaves Annie a series of voice mails about how frightened she is of the shop's handyman. Annie feels guilty, because she had swapped shifts with her to host an event at her book shop that day. The handyman is the obvious suspect, but can Annie get anyone else to believe that Everett's death might have been murder?
Of course she can! And that's the fun of reading this series. Fried oyster sandwich, anyone?
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