Sealed Off (Maine Clambake Series #8)

by Barbara Ross

Overview

Early October is “winding down” time in Busman’s Harbor, Maine, but there’s nothing relaxing about it for Julia Snowden. Between busloads of weekend leaf peepers at the Snowden Family Clambake and a gut renovation of the old mansion on Morrow Island, she’s keeping it all together with a potentially volatile skeleton crew—until one of them turns up dead under the firewood.
 
When the Russian demo team clearing out the mansion discovers a room that’s been sealed off for decades, Julia’s baffled as to its purpose and what secrets it might have held. Tensions are already simmering with the crew, but when one of the workers is found murdered, things come to a boil. With the discovery of another body—and a mysterious diary with Cyrillic text in the hidden room—the pressure’s on Julia to dig up a real killer fast. But she’ll have to sort through a pile of suspects, including ex-spouses, a spurned lover, and a recently released prisoner, to fish out one clammed-up killer.
 

Praise for Steamed Open
 
“Sure to appeal to readers who treasure the Maine coast, Ross’s latest continues the lives and minor dramas of her fictionalized version of Boothbay Harbor with amiable characters.”
—Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496717955
Publisher:	Kensington
Publication date:	12/31/2019
Series:	Maine Clambake Series , #8
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	79,665
Product dimensions:	4.10(w) x 6.60(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Barbara Ross is the author of the Maine Clambake Mystery novels. Books in the series have been nominated for multiple Agatha Awards for Best Contemporary Novel and have won the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction. Barbara’s novellas featuring the Maine Clambake characters are included along with stories by Leslie Meier and Lee Hollis in the holiday anthologies Eggnog Murder, Yule Log Murder, and Haunted House Murder. Her second series, the Jane Darrowfield Mysteries, began with Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody. Barbara and her husband live in Portland, Maine. Readers can visit her website at www.maineclambakemysteries.com.

Editorial Reviews

2019-10-14
A tiny Maine island provides the setting for a modern-day murder and a puzzle from the past.

Julia Snowden's family runs a clambake business whose profits rely on the tourist trade. The season is almost over when handsome lobsterman Jason Caraway causes bad feelings by flirting madly with single mom Emmy Bailey, one of the servers, much to the chagrin of Pru Caraway, Jason's ex-wife, who also works at the Snowden Family Clambake Company. Also involved in this combustible brew is Terry Durand, the elder brother of Julia's boyfriend, Chris, who's recently been released from prison. Meanwhile, Julia is deeply immersed in the renovation of Windsholme, her family's abandoned mansion, which hasn't been used since 1929. The contractor is starting demolition on the third floor so that elderly family member Marguerite Morrow can make one last visit before the house is irrevocably changed forever. Julia notices that Jason seems to know one of the Russian immigrants on the demolition crew. The tour discloses a walled-off room still containing furniture, clothes, and a journal dating back to the late 1800s. Then Jason and Terry get into a fistfight that makes Terry the police's top suspect when Julia finds Jason with his head bashed in—though they're also interested in the missing Dmitri, whose excellent English made him the natural spokesperson for the Russians. Jason was hiding many secrets, some of which will prove dangerous for Julia as she continues her sleuthing in the past and present. Even though Julia has previous experience with murder (Steamed Open, 2018, etc.), the police are ambivalent about accommodating her attempts to prove Terry innocent. Her whole family, meantime, is fascinated by the mystery of who lived in the walled-off room and hopes the journal will provide the answers.

The beautiful landscape of coastal Maine adds local color to two intriguing mysteries.

Kirkus Reviews