Review/Giveaway: A Watery Death by Joyce and Jim Lavene

It’s the Fourth of July weekend in Duck, North Carolina and twenty-thousand visitors are on hand to enjoy the parade, the festivities – and learn about the murder of Captain Bill Lucky.

Lucky is the captain of the new gambling ship, Andalusia II, which is modeled after the famous ghost ship that haunts the small town on the Outer Banks. Like her predecessor, the Spanish treasure ship replica has been a boon to the hardy residents of Duck, but it has proven unlucky for her captain.

Mayor Dae O’Donnell has her hands full with setting up the parade set, convincing her friend, Trudy, that she shouldn’t call off her wedding, and getting her shop, Missing Pieces, ready for the summer when she makes most of her money for the year. She doesn’t need the problems involved with a local murder.

But Captain Lucky involves Dae when he asks her to buy an artifact from him that is supposed to be able to summon mermaids. He says he needs money to get out of town for a few days until some problems are resolved. Dae is glad to help him, but isn’t prepared to find him dead in his quarters on the Andalusia when she returns the keys he dropped at her shop.

It isn’t the first time that mermaids and mermen have been seen in Duck, but it’s the first time one of them has been accused of murder. While her grandfather and her fiancé, Kevin, struggle to believe such a thing is possible, Dae is left trying to prove her new friends are innocent.

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REVIEW

It all comes down to Duck.  What are the odds I would read at least 3 books in the last week either set in or which refer to Duck, NC?  I'm almost beginning to feel like a native!

Certainly Dae, the mayor of Duck, is a welcoming soul.  She is willing to help anybody in need, and is quick to defend her friends when necessary.  The town is lucky to have her.

Unfortunately for Captain William Lucky, he does not live up to his name.  Shortly after temporarily selling Dae a horn he claims will call mermaids, he is found drowned in his stateroom aboard the Andalusia II.  The room, astonishingly, looks like it has been sunk into the ocean as everything is sodden and seaweed is scattered around the room.

Merfolk have been associated with Duck for at least a hundred years, as many sightings have taken place and are recorded in some fashion in the local museum.  As with most supernatural phenomena, there are the hard-core believers, the hard-line nonbelievers and a little bit of everything in between.

I think Dae was somewhere in between at the beginning.  She'd never seen merfolk personally, but considering her gift of being able to find things or know an object's history by touch, she knows that 'there are more things in heaven and earth' than what most people believe  Then we have the people that do believe and want to either study the merfolk to death or make a profit from them.

Really, who do we think we are?

Mermania aside, Duck is the kind of town I would LOVE to visit.  I've been there once before, with the Lavene's Dae's Christmas Past (#6 in the Missing Pieces Mystery Series).  So, I've got five more trips to go (for each of the previous installments in the series) before my "Duck Card" is full.  For fans of cozy mysteries, A Watery Death should be high on your TBR list!

And I was ever so happy to see a crossover couple from one of the Lavene's other mystery series!

Each new book from Joyce & Jim Lavene is like adding a new member to the family.  I couldn't choose a favorite anymore than I would call one of my children my favorite.  Each new book brings its own love and expands our capacity.  There will always been room for another Lavene book on my shelves.  

Unexplainable?  Maybe.  True?  Absolutely!

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MEET THE AUTHORS

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Joyce and Jim Lavene write award-winning, bestselling mystery fiction as themselves, J.J. Cook, and Ellie Grant. They have written and published more than 70 novels for Harlequin, Berkley, Amazon, and Gallery Books along with hundreds of non-fiction articles for national and regional publications. They live in rural North Carolina with their family.

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GIVEAWAY!!!

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The button above leads to the tour page where you can find more reviews, as well as guest posts and  an interview with the authors.  You can also apply to become a reviewer for GEBT while you are there!!!

(Disclosure:  I received an e-copy of A Watery Death by Joyce and Jim Lavene from the authors and publishers via Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.)