Now back in Boston and schooled in self-defense, Flora is obsessed with kidnapped girls and the nature of survival, a topic she touches on a bit more than necessary in the many flashbacks to her time in captivity. There are enough other suspects to put the inexperienced sleuths in danger of attracting attention from a determined killer.Ī humorous tale filled with recipes for blueberry lovers, high school angst, and a few tricks up its mysterious sleeve.Ī kidnapping survivor–turned-vigilante tries to save another young woman while the police do everything they can to save them both.įlora Dane might look unscathed but she’s permanently scarred from having been abducted while on spring break in Florida seven years earlier by Jacob Ness, a sadistic trucker who held her captive for 472 days, keeping her in a coffin for much of the time when he wasn't forcing her to have sex with him. Both sets of friends are determined to find the real killer even after Caskie’s closest friend, Regina Knoxville, verbally abuses them at the funeral. When she finds Caskie dead in the room next to hers, Sheila’s naturally a suspect.

Caskie takes out a restraining order against her former classmates, and Sheila moves to an inn after a fight with Hayley and badmouths Caskie all over town. So Hayley’s brainstorm for an impromptu class reunion for her mom’s friends ends in a nasty confrontation. Caskie’s hobbies are blueberry picking, making and selling delicious treats, and flirting with other women’s husbands and boyfriends. Hayley’s best friends, Liddy and Mona ( Death of a Wedding Cake Baker, 2019, etc.), are the daughters of Sheila’s high school buddies Jane and Celeste, who are appalled when they attend a barbecue where their old school enemy Caskie Lemon-Hogg shows up with a homemade blueberry pie. Dismayed by the sudden addition to their tiny house even though Sheila volunteers to petsit while they’re away, Hayley is upset by Sheila’s criticism of her clothes and her cleaning and cooking skills. Six days before they’re to leave on their honeymoon cruise, their dream is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Hayley’s mother, Sheila, following a breakup with her longtime boyfriend. Both work for the Island Times, she as a food columnist and he as a crime reporter.

Two groups of besties a generation apart vie for the honor of being Bar Harbor’s top sleuths.ĭivorced mother of two Hayley Powell has recently married Bruce Linney after years of a contentious relationship dating back to high school.

Death of a blueberry tart