Former Miami detective Jane Bunker is now a part-time detective in the small town of Green Haven, Maine. Jane wears other hats and is also an insurance investigator. Jane lives above her very wacky landlords, Mr. and Mrs. Vickerson, who are always in Jane's business because they share a phone line with her.
Jane gets a call from her boss that she needs to go the island of Acadia. There has been a fire in one of the homes, and he needs her to check it out for the insurance policy. Jane never thought that by going to this island would she find the burned body of the homeowner, Mrs. Kohl. Jane takes pictures of everything that she can. As Jane tries to learn more about the events leading to the fire, she learns the main business on this island is lobsters, and Mrs. Kohl had a huge hand in the lobster business. Turns out, all of the people that work in this business are convicted felons. They are allowed to work on the island and everything is paid for. The regulars that live on this island are not happy at all about all of these felons living in their town.
Jane has a few suspects in mind, although many of them don't lead too far. The more information she uncovers, the more danger Jane finds herself in. Will she be another victim?
Linda Greenlaw writes a very interesting mystery in
Jane Bunker thought sheβd escaped the pollution, noise, and
dead bodies of the big city when she left her job as a Miami
homicide detective and moved back to the idyllic town of
Green Haven, Maine. But through her work as a marine
insurance investigator, it appears sheβs left behind the
bustle of the city, but not the murder.
When Jane is called to the remote Acadia Island to assess
the damages from a house fire, she also finds a badly burned
body in the charred rubble, and it turns out that the victim
is the owner of the house, a wealthy woman who just happens
to be one of the most hated women in town. As Jane
investigates further, she becomes embroiled in a plot as
thick as New England clam chowder, which involves convicted
felons, a real estate scam, and the deep conflicts between
the locals and the summer folks. On top of trying to find
what might be a murderer on the loose, Jane is still living
with her bonkers landlords, the Vickersons, who are
delighted when Jane finds out that her brother Wally (who
has Downβs syndrome) is going to move in with them, after
losing his assisted living arrangement. Itβs all Jane can do
to keep all the moving pieces together, much less figure out
who would want to burn someone aliveβand why.
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