 |
- Mystery - |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Death’s a Beach |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
D eath’s a Beach byBeth Sherman Avon Books 256 pages, 2000 ISBN 0380731096 Reviewed by PJ Nunn Read our review of Death at High Tide by the same author Ghostwriter Anne Hardaway is back and hard at work on a "how-to" book about home repair. It may not be all that exciting, but it’s a living and she can work from home in the beach community of Oceanside Heights. She’s distracted from her work as forecasters start issuing warnings of an impending storm. Her house is nice enough, yet it needs some serious bolstering to be ready for a big storm. When she discovers the plank flooring in the basement giving way, she calls in a repairman who’s ready to replace it with concrete. But neither of them are ready for the skeleton he finds planted beneath the floor. As storm clouds move in, the shadows are mirrored in Anne’s life. Her fiancé Jack is provoking commitment issues, the skeleton in the basement is identified as the psychologist who’d treated Anne’s mother years before, and Anne’s investigation leads her to a place where elderly people are dying at an alarming rate. Overcast skies seem appropriate with the threat of death in the air. Sherman is a seasoned author. Death’s a Beach is the third book in the Jersey Shore Mystery series. Although it’s billed as a "beach book" and Sherman’s protagonist shows glimpses of humor, it is not altogether light reading. Readers are drawn into the heaviness and confusion that Anne feels, but should also be able to experience the strength and tenacity of her character. Sherman is gifted at bringing characters to life on the page and at creating a fictional community that is easy to visualize. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||