It's bedlam by the bay, chaos on the coast, another dustup in Devil's Harbor.
Thanks to reporter Molly Donovan, the person who killed The Big Grabowski is in jail, but things are hardly back to what passes for normal in the quirky coastal community. With the aging sewage treatment system at its limit and huge penalties looming, the mayor orders extreme water conservation. Townspeople complain, but comply; they make every flush count.
Then Elspeth spots an image scorched into a breaded crab cake served up at the Devil's Food Cafe. Swarms of pilgrims descend on the town and the mayor, despite threats of impeachment or worse, plants a portable toilet on every lawn. Only selling timber from town trust land can supply funds to fix the sewer system. But a tree- sitting activist for hire keeps loggers at bay. When someone takes a chainsaw to his perch, Molly discovers the fall alone didn't kill him-he was poisoned, strangled, and struck with a blunt object. Who did him in? The mayor? The girlfriend he cheated on? The environmentalist he defrauded? Loggers with their payday on hold? While Molly delves into the dead man's past, hoping to untangle a snarl of lies and name the killer before Sheriff Greg Erdman, others chart stranger courses-her father falls for a shady lady, Henri undertakes an extreme makeover, Adam flees to the forest, Elspeth sees the light, Icky becomes a writer, and Shelley takes bold steps to turn back the tide of tourism.
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