Callie Padget is back home. For now. After losing her news reporter job in Charlotte and then her apartment, she packed up and moved back in with her uncle on Cattail Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. But she doesn’t plan on staying.
She’s in front of the MotherVine Bookshop when she sees a car coming down the street a little too fast. The cat in the middle of the street feasting on an abandoned fish taco doesn’t notice, but Callie does, and swoops down to pick up the cat just in time. The cat belongs to Antoinette, the bookshop owner and Callie’s mother’s former best friend and business partner. Callie’s mother had worked there before she died, and the shelf of books by Mary Higgins Clark still exists, just where it used to be. MHC had been Callie’s mother’s favorite author, and her books were the ones Callie turned to when she was 12 and grieving.
Antoinette offers Callie a job at the bookshop for the summer, and Callie decides to take it. She hadn’t been able to find any other jobs, and the bookshop suits her fine. Books are old friends, and making deliveries around town will give her a chance to reconnect with those she knew growing up. And then Eva Meeks comes rushing in, looking for books about local history, and Callie finds herself drawn back into old friendships.
In school. Callie had been friends with Eva’s younger sister Georgia, since they were in the same class, but she certainly knew Eva too. And now, Eva was on the hunt for treasure. There had always been rumors that Blackbeard had buried treasure nearby, and Eva was excited about treasure hunting. Later that night, Eva had called Callie, asking if she wanted to come to the lighthouse with her. Eva was on to something. But Calle stayed in. It wasn’t until the next morning that she heard the news.
She was back in the bookstore, about to learn how to use the cantankerous cash register, when she overheard a customer talking about a woman who had jumped from the lighthouse overnight. This, almost 26 years to the day when another woman had jumped. Callie froze as she heard this. She immediately left for the lighthouse, where it was confirmed that it had been Eva who had been found at the base of the lighthouse, not too far from the white cross that had symbolized the other woman who had died there, Teri Padgett. Callie’s mom.
The police immediately decide that Eva’s death had been a suicide, but Callie has doubts. Eva had seemed full of life and excitement, especially yesterday when Callie had seen her in the bookstore and when she had called from the lighthouse. What could have happened at the top of the lighthouse to change her mind? Or was it someone else who had made that decision for her?
Callie isn’t a reporter anymore, but she still has that curiosity. She wants to find out what happened to her friend and to get answers for Eva’s 12-year-old daughter Summer. And then, when she is attacked coming home one night, a note left for her saying, “Back Off,” and a figure in black charging at her with the same message, she knows that she is right in believing that Eva didn’t commit suicide. But that also means she is chasing a killer who knows exactly who she is while she’s still trying to figure out who they are.
Smile Beach Murder is the first in a new mystery series, Outer Banks Bookshop Mysteries, from Alicia Bessette, herself a reporter turned North Carolina coastal resident. This series brings to life a strong main character, several warm and funny supporting characters, and an intriguing mystery. But I think the best part of this book is the setting. Cattail Island, with its beaches and small town flavor, with the Cattaillers and the Dingbatters, and the grapes. The mother vine of MotherVine Bookshop is an actual grapevine which creates a canopy over the back porch, where customers can sit and read and try the grapes.
I wasn’t entirely sure what I would find in the pages of Smile Beach Murder. There was something about the title of the cover that made me feel a little off balance. But I opened it up and started reading, and almost immediately I was completely charmed by Callie and by Cattail Island. This book is funny and filled with the kind of quirky characters I would hope to find in a small town. I loved the treasure hunt story line and the Cattillion to fundraise for the dilapidated pier. I really enjoyed my time on Cattail Island, and I look forward to taking another trip and solving more mysteries.
Egalleys for Smile Beach Murder were provided by Berkley through NetGalley, with many thanks.
