Murder On The Rocks
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Newcomer (aka she’s From Away - in this case, Texas) Natalie Barnes is running herself ragged operating a barely-surviving B&B on Cranberry Island by herself, with the exception of some help from her visiting niece. In comes an out-of-state developer wanting to build a large resort on the island that would threaten both Natalie’s livelihood and the environment of an imperiled bird species. When he’s found dead, Natalie is a prime suspect.
As Natalie investigates his death on her own, readers are treated to a cast of characters on Cranberry Island, including local law enforcement, lobstermen, the owner of the general store, and more. MacInerney does a good job sketching out these characters and their place on the island, as well as juxtaposing the dead developor’s wife, son, and assistant with the community - all while building them into the story through Natalie’s interactions with them and suspicions about them.
The story has twists, but it also has plenty of “Oh, come on, why would you do that?” moments from Natalie. But...it is a cozy mystery, so that’s to be expected and part of the fun. Added adventure in the story comes from the exploits of Natalie’s niece, an artist who takes up with a local lobsterman and finds herself learning about the hazards of life on a fishing boat in the Maine ocean.
While the mystery plot didn’t make me want to keep turning pages late into the night, it was still a good story with an ending I didn’t guess. It might be because the victim was thoroughly unlikeable and didn’t seem to have anyone who actually cared about him trying to solve his murder. The mystery of whether Natalie’s love interest had a girlfriend in Portland or not was perhaps the more interesting mystery in the book, though.
TL;DR: Overall, a good book but not the most exciting of mysteries. A solid slow-paced beach read, or a good read for someone who likes the coziness of cozy mysteries better than the mystery itself. It’s the first in a series, though, and I did like it enough as a relaxing read to want to continue on with the series.
Maine Thoughts: Set on Cranberry Island, which is presumably an amalgam of the Cranberry Isles, the book has your classic cast of Maine island characters. On the realistic to caricature scale, I’d rate them somewhere in the middle. The scene-setting was very well done, though, especially with MacInerney’s inclusion of the terror of fishing boats disappearing during a storm.