cover image Storm of Secrets: A Haunted Bluffs Mystery

Storm of Secrets: A Haunted Bluffs Mystery

Loretta Marion. Crooked Lane, $26.99 (336p) ISBN 978-1-64385-175-4

The approach of tropical storm Chantal propels the action of Marion’s gripping sequel to 2018’s House of Ashes. In Whale Rock Village, Mass., Cassie Mitchell postpones her wedding to former FBI agent Daniel Benjamin. While helping locals and tourists prepare for the storm, she finds a dead body in a dumpster. Meanwhile, three-year-old Lucas Kleister, the son of a wealthy tourist, goes missing. Opening her historic home to those stranded, Cassie soon realizes she may have the murder suspect and possible child abductor right under her roof. Amid the chaos of the storm, a strange woman is seen in Cassie’s family cemetery leaving flowers on the grave of an unidentified child known as the Barnacle Boy, who drowned in Cape Cod Bay decades earlier. The frantic search for Lucas opens up old wounds for the townspeople and brings to light startling connections among Cassie’s houseguests, the missing child, and the long ago mystery of the Barnacle Boy. Marion seamlessly weaves the multiple story threads together. Fans of tales of regional intrigue will be satisfied. Agent: Jill Grosjean, Jill Grosjean Literary. (Nov.)