Croaked - C J Verburg - Bog

"Everything I want in a mystery...a plot that keeps you turning pages, terrific dialog, humor, great local color, ...oh yes, and murders too. I enjoyed every minute of it."Cape Cod! To Lydia Vivaldi, fleeing a meltdown in Boston, the quaint seaside village of Quansett looks like sanctuary. Then she learns that her one friend here, DeAnne, died tragically last month. How could an ex-Fix-It Chick fall off a ladder at a film shoot? Over lunch at Leo's Back End, Lydia's shocked questions are brushed off by the flirtatious filmmaker.She jumps on Leo's offer of a summer job--and soon realizes the locals know more than they're telling. Is it true the Back End's Wampanoag dessert chef had a fling with DeAnne? Leo's head cook claims that wasn't the dead girl's only romance, or her only secret. But the police have closed the case, and DeAnne's parents don't want anyone tarnishing their daughter's memory.Only Edgar Rowdey, reclusive artist-author of creepy little storybooks, shares Lydia's doubts about the "accident." As she gets to know her new neighbors--a hippie bookstore clerk, an ex-police photographer, a pair of Broadway-musical composers, a retired football star--Lydia gathers rumors and recollections like seashells. But while she and Edgar sort through her collection, their #1 suspect is found drowned in Leo's frog pond. Another accident, or another murder? Can this unlikely pair of sleuths find out WTF is happening before it happens again?