Chloe Jackson, former Chicago children’s librarian, now part-owner of the beachfront Sea Glass Saloon, comes back to Emerald Cove after tying up the last of the loose ends of her old life up north. Chloe’s best friend, Boone, had left her his stake in the bar on the Gulf Coast on the promise that she’d look after his grandmother (and the bar’s other owner), Vivi Slidell, if he didn’t make it back home from his tour of duty in Afghanistan. (Tragically, he does not.) When Chloe follows through on her promise, she discovers that Vivi is far from needing, or wanting, “looking after,” and she is most definitely less than thrilled to have Chloe as her new business partner. But eventually, she and Vivi had achieved the semblance of a truce, and now Chloe was back to pursue her new future.
Part of her inheritance from Boone included his boat and beachfront home, and Chloe started every morning with a run on the beach. Her first morning back, with a heavy fog obscuring visibility, Chloe runs across a boat washed up on the shore. Hearing what sounds like a baby’s cry and with no one answering her shouts, Chloe phones 911 for help and boards the ship to search for the source of the wails, losing her cellphone in the process. What she discovers is a cat trapped inside one of the staterooms, along with a skeleton. But as she and the cat make their way up top to wait for assistance, the boat changes positions in the suddenly buffeting wind and waves and comes unstuck from the sand bar holding it to the shore. As the boat drifts back out into the Gulf, a storm steadily starts to build. She sees a boat approaching in the distance and tries to signal it for help but, oddly, it veers off instead.
The boat is derelict, but Chloe finds the generator and powers the radio long enough to transmit a “Mayday.” The Coast Guard answers, and soon a small craft arrives. The white-bearded captain rescues Chloe and the cat and takes them to the pier in front of the Sea Glass Saloon, where a large crowd of people has gathered to assist in the rescue operation. But before she can get his name and express her thanks, her rescuer slips away and take off.
When it comes to light that the boat she was on disappeared 12 years ago with four Emerald Cove residents aboard, local law enforcement gets involved. One of the missing was the wife of Ralph Harrison, the owner of the Redneck Rollercoaster. When the Fair Wind first disappeared, the police had looked long and hard at surviving family members for signs of foul play, and now they were digging it all back up again. Chloe decides to investigate and asks Ann Williams, the local "fixer," to help her clear Ralph’s name.
One of the draws of life in Emerald Cove is Rhett “Rip” Barnett; the sexy former lawyer turned firefighter. He is front-and-center concerned when Chloe goes missing in the Gulf. He sticks close to Chloe’s side, helping her search for answers, while she finds it difficult to put two coherent sentences together when he’s nearby. But when Ann finds a connection between Rip and the mysterious boat Chloe’s rescuer captained, Chloe wonders if his interest is in her or in what she knows.
Complicating the investigation of the Fair Wind mystery is the appearance of Steve Kincheloe, Boone’s estranged father. He claims he has his son’s final will, which leaves him all Boone’s possessions, including half-interest in the Sea Glass Saloon. Vivi hates the man and how he treated her daughter, Boone’s mother, and Boone, and Chloe’s no fan either; she knows the history. She suspects fraud, and things get even tenser when Steve gives her a week to pack and move out of the house so he can knock it down and build a new one.
A TIME TO SWILL is a triumphant return to Emerald Cove and the Sea Glass Saloon for the fun and feisty Chloe Jackson. Chloe is a great character, a former children’s librarian, now waiting tables, making exotic ‘happy’ drinks while learning the bar business. She’s a smart and bright personality with a lot of energy. I enjoy how she relates to her new life by how she would have handled things as a children’s librarian. The story is chockfull of literary references that are fun to run across.
The love interest, Rip Barnett, is sexy, strong, and gratifyingly interested in Chloe. He had my vote from the start. Vivi is thawing in her attitude toward Chloe, and I hope the trend continues. On the top of my list of most wanted recurring characters are Joaquín and his partner, Michael. I love the camaraderie at the bar and that they are so supportive and such good friends to our girl. With the solid mystery of the disappearance of the Fair Wind and several juicy subplots as well, I highly recommend this series and, especially, A TIME TO SWILL as the perfect summer book for cozy mystery lovers.
Bestselling author Sherry Harris gives us the second in a new cozy mystery series featuring a bartender sleuth in the tiny town of Emerald Cove, Florida.
BAD TO THE BONE
Chloe loves her new life pouring beers and mixing cocktails at the Sea Glass Saloon in the Florida Panhandle town of Emerald Cove. But on the job, the only exercise she gets is walking from one end of the bar to the other, so in the mornings she loves to run on the beach. On this morning’s foggy run, she spots a sailboat washed up on a sandbar. Hearing a cry, she climbs aboard the beached vessel to investigate and finds not only a mewling kitten—but a human skeleton in the cabin.
The skeleton is tied back to Chloe’s friend Ralph, whose wife disappeared on a sailboat with three other people twelve years ago. Believing his wife was lost at sea, Ralph remarried. Now he finds himself a murder suspect. Chloe is determined to find out who’s been up to some skulduggery, but her sleuthing will lead her into some rough waters and some bone-chilling revelations…
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