Plot, Character, and a Taste of Maine: MUSSELED OUT, New from Barbara Ross

With her third Maine Clambake Mystery, MUSSELED OUT, Barbara Ross serves up a triple whammy of tight and fast-moving plot (competition! risk! death! danger!!), complex and likeable amateur sleuth (Julia Snowden, with crises ahead), and an alluring Maine-scape of working folks, visitors, and ocean adventure. The result is what every author of a series dreams of achieving. Each book is getting better -- and the first one was pretty darned good, so by now, the Maine Clambake series is one of the best amateur sleuth (sometimes called "cozy") mystery series coming out of New England.

The key to a really good mystery is the intricate chemistry that links the sleuth and the circumstances. As MUSSELED OUT opens, it's autumn on the Maine coast, and the Snowden family business, a tourist-serving clambake operation on a nearby island, has only a week left of the season -- and then it won't bring in money again until after the long New England winter. For Julia, it's decision time: Back in March, she'd taken a leave from her high-powered Manhattan money job, to rescue the family business in Busman's Harbor, Maine. Has she done enough? Should she return to her "real life" in the city? Or should she take a lease on her own apartment and give up her city job for good?

If she stays, is she also committing to her new/old boyfriend, Chris Durand, with his mysterious past absences that he won't share with her? She's in love -- but is that enough to be able to trust both Chris and a shared future?

As if that weren't enough, there's a new stress on the Snowden Clambake biz: Right next door to the Clambake ticket booth, on the town pier, a new ticket booth's being built for "Le Shack. David Thwing, the Mussel King." Armed with an already-famous gourmet chef, Thwing doesn't just intend to provide competition -- he tells Julia clearly that he aims to knock the Snowdens out of the game, in less than a season.

So when Thwing suddenly turns up dead, caught on a drifting boat, Julia's family is under immediate suspicion -- especially her sister's husband Sonny, who's clearly lying about where he's been and what he's done during the critical time period. And, oh yes, there's a lobstering war going on at the same time; could it be linked to the heap of disasters?

The most important part of an "amateur sleuth" mystery -- and MUSSELED OUT is clearly this type of mystery -- is making it crystal clear why a person like Julia Snowden would tackle the dangerous activity of trying to identify and catch a murderer. But with her family's business and possibly her brother-in-law's freedom at stake, Julia simply must step up for this one. Will it put unbearable strain on her new love relationship with Chris? As an independent individual who dashes out on a boat as needed, will it thrust her into renewed danger? You bet.

While all this is rising to a crescendo of suspense and risk, author Barbara Ross keeps tantalizing readers with the best of Maine menus. It's not just the fabulous mussel recipe of David Thwing, the "mussel king." It's also Chris's shrimp and lobster polenta; a lobster, shrimp, and fennel scampi; and even "Grandma Snowden's Pumpkin Whoopie Pies." As Ross notes, "whoopie pies are the unofficial, and well-loved, state snack of Maine." Mouth watering? Check the recipes at the back of the book. Ross admits, as she has before, that she relies on her husband Bill for the seafood delights, although the baked goods are her own contributions.

I noticed an intriguing author mention on the whoopie pie recipe that suggests a direction for the next book, too, where Ross points out that we "haven't learned much about Julia's father's side of the family so far in the series" -- hmm. True enough. The folks at risk in MUSSELED OUT, like the ones in Clammed Up and Boiled Over, are Julia's siblings and mom. Wonder what's up with all that?

I'm definitely hooked on this series ("hook, line, and sinker"!), and plan to re-read MUSSELED OUT later in the summer as part of my beach-or-back-porch reading basket. (Release date is April 28, in case you want yours ASAP.) Can you read this one without the first pair of Clambake Mysteries? Sure. Ross does a nice succinct job of summing up critical earlier events from the other books without distracting from the pace of murder, mayhem, and investigation. But the best pleasure would be from devouring all three books, one after another, savoring that Down East Maine atmosphere and exhilaration. Why not? All three, from Kensington Books, where the line of mysteries just keeps getting better (and yummier).

Beach Reading, New England Style: BOILED OVER, 2nd Maine Clambake Mystery, Barbara Ross

My beach life has been the northern New England version: bring sweatshirt, blanket, long pants, extra socks, maybe even hot tea in a Thermos.

No, it's not really that cold. At least, not often. Or not every day. What can I say? My mom loved the rocky, wind-swept coast of Maine; my dad never took us to the "gentle" beaches on Cape Cod because they are more crowded -- we could go to the colder side and spend less money and waste less time while still collecting shells and sniffing the salt air; and by the way, here in land-locked Vermont, "beach" means a narrow strip of sand alongside a lake where the last ice vanished maybe six weeks ago.

But it's June, and there will be hot sunny afternoons, even if the mornings are "fresh" (almost frosty) and the nights sparkle with a cold clear star-scape. It's time to stack up the summer reading, whether it's for the beach or the hammock or the couch. Let's add the new Maine Clambake Mystery from Barbara Ross.

Ross's first book in this series, Clammed Up, introduced Julia Snowden to readers last year. Snowdon may be from Maine, but her skills have been honed in New York City. Only her family's dire financial predicament has her back to the rocky coast, for a rescue mission that she figures won't last all that long.

But here we are in BOILED OVER and it's clear her family still needs her -- every small accident costs the struggling family clambake enterprise in customers and profits. (What's a clambake? Picture all the Maine summer foods at once, from lobster and clams to potato salad and blueberry dessert. The hot part is the official clambake, cooked in a pit with heated rocks and some seaweed; the rest is a delicious harmony.) So when Julia realizes that her family's food scene as part of the Busman's Harbor "Founder's Weekend" celebration has just become a crime scene -- with a human foot -- her worries escalate rapidly. There goes the food investment; there goes the reputation of the family firm (again!); and here come the police, skeptical about Julia's repeated involvement with suspicious circumstances and the hunt for a killer.

I stood for a moment in the crowd, listening more carefully. Sure enough, below the happy chatter about the watercolors of lobster buoys and the oil paintings of crashing waves, there was a low throb of commentary from the local people on the other side of the tables.

"They say it was the boy, the one who ran away."

"I hear he's wanted by the police up in Washington County."

"I heard he's a serial killer."

"What was a person like that doing working for the Snowdens?"

And always the refrain, "If he didn't do anything, why did he run?"

Sometimes I frickin' hated living in a small town.

Ross twists a tight and exciting plot from the hunt for the "boy who ran away" (is he indeed a criminal?) and for the motives leading to killing one of the region's leading business owners. And in Julia Snowden she has an amateur sleuth whose investigatory skills and motives are utterly convincing -- no need to make excuses for why Julia's on the hunt. Heck, the police officers are even giving her hints and asking for her help this time! (Well, maybe that move was too good to be true ... could explain why they seem to be following her ... ) And the lively characters and Julia's struggles to both embrace them and hold back something of her city self make the mystery even more interesting.

A twist that writers and seasoned readers will especially appreciate is Julia's assignment for the Founder's Weekend committee itself: discover the town's past, and the reason it's named "Busman's Harbor." For some insight into Ross's research into her fictional town's history, check this post she wrote on the Maine Crime Writers blog, not long before the book was published. I enjoyed the mention of Busman's Honeymoon, and the real list of resources, too.

Two more aspects make BOILED OVER into an especially well-rounded mystery for summer reading: the frustrating and poignant struggles that Julia's enduring with her romantic life on the side (how can she commit when she knows she doesn't belong back here?), and the yummy handful of recipes to bring alive that taste of Maine, home of beans, lobster, blueberry pie, and more.

Interested in meeting this author, whose books are rapidly finding a home on all sorts of bestseller and award nomination lists? She keeps an organized list of public events on her website: http://maineclambakemysteries.com/appearances -- and is as much fun in person as her sleuth Julia Snowdon is on the pages.