Shadows on the Coast of Maine
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TL;DR: A solid cozy mystery that would be a perfect read on the porch of your coastal New England camp.
An engaging mystery set in a fictional town in what appears to be Lincoln County, Shadows on the Coast of Maine paints a picture of a beautiful place where the long history simmers below the surface, adding tension to the ideal coastal summer.
It’s the second book in the Antique Print cozy mystery series, but is easily readable and enjoyable as a standalone book. I hadn’t read the first in the series and was perfectly fine jumping right into the story of Maggie Summer, her antique print business, and the mystery she finds herself in on the coast of Maine.
Maggie ends up in Maine because her old college roommate calls her to come for a visit - but the visit has a motive. Maggie’s old roommate, Amy, is starting to get uncomfortable and spooked in her new (but very old) home in midcoast Maine. She’s having problems with her husband, there’s tension with the neighbors because she’s ‘from away,’ and there’s also the requisite signs of a haunting - a non-existent baby crying in the night, mysterious phone calls, and an unexplainable fire.
After Maggie arrives, another element is added to the spooky mix when a local teenager is murdered. Maggie begins paying close attention to the goings-on of the town, hoping to figure out the murder and what’s actually happening at her friends’ seemingly haunted home.
Shadows on the Coast of Maine hits all the right notes for a successful cozy mystery, and effectively uses the history of the town as an added character for the story. The family ties - including distant cousins - and the heritage going back 200+ years make up a web of secrets that create the perfect level of suspense for the mystery.
Throughout the book, there’s the added interest of descriptions of prints and informational tidbits about artists and the overall antiques business, both through supporting characters like Maggie’s love interest Will Brewer and through Maggie herself. Maggie is a knowledgeable, likable character who doesn’t seem to take the usual unrealistic risks that can be common of characters in cozy mysteries.
In the afterword, we learn that author Lea Wait had a clear inspiration for the book from the house she lived and wrote in on the coast of Maine. The added historical intrigue of the ‘haunted’ house certainly adds to the fun of Shadows on the Coast of Maine.