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DRAWN AND BUTTERED – Shari Randall Mystic Bay, CT – Present Day Allie Larkin is a professional ballerina, a part-time helper at the Lazy Mermaid Lobster Shack (owned by Allie's Aunt Gully), and an amateur sleuth. After injuring her ankle in a fall, Allie is bunking with Aunt Gully while taking some dance classes at the local college. As Halloween approaches, there is excitement at the Lazy Mermaid when Bertha Betancourt shows up at the dock with her customers from her Learn to Lobster tour. They carry a large bucket up to the shack and inside is the biggest lobster any of them had ever seen. Summoning a professor from the marine biology program at the college, everyone nicknames the big crustacean Lobzilla. Fred Nickerson, the professor, and a student assistant, Max, arrive and the older man is beside himself with glee. Lobzilla is put in one of the lobster shack's storage tanks for the night. Mystic Bay is known as a safe community where people don't bother locking their doors. But the night Lobzilla is found, word comes out that Royal Parish's house has been broken into. The Parish family is wealthy and proud of their royal heritage, and are stunned that someone ransacked their house. Unfortunately, someone has also stolen Lobzilla. Allie begins to wonder about several weird happenings. Someone was peeking into Aunt Gully's kitchen while she prepared her chowder, running away when Allie confronted him or her (they were dressed in black and fled before Allie could catch them). Odd items have been left at the lobster shack – leis draped around and beer and liquor bottles strewn throughout the yard. Then Gully's house is broken into and her recipe cards and cookbooks are tossed onto the floor, drawers opened, and a general mess left. But this is nothing compared to finding the body of Max, Fred's student, laying on the grave in the Parish family cemetery with Lobzilla beside him. While Allie knows the police are investigating Max's death, she has her own thoughts on who might be involved. But there are almost too many red herrings. She is trying to get her dancing career back on track while investigating all of the different channels regarding Max. Can she narrow things down before she, too, is put in a dangerous position? DRAWN AND BUTTERED is another Lobster Shack Mystery and it's both funny and exciting. Allie studies all of the clues along with two close friends. There are any number of potential killers, despite the laid back, New England community where everyone knows everyone. Preceded by two books, AGAINST THE CLAW and CURSES, BOILED AGAIN, I highly recommend this enjoyable mystery. And I dare readers to figure out the killer before Allie does! Jani Brooks |
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