Evil By The Sea
Island life can get pretty weird. Wiccan weddings, psychic brides, mermaid parades, eccentric parrots. Novelist Liz Holt has gotten used to it since moving back to the barrier island of Melbourne Beach, Florida, and once again working in her family’s hotel and emporium, the Indialantic by the Sea. But one thing she’ll never get used to is murder.
Groom-to-be and leader of the Sunshine Wiccan Society, white warlock Julian Rhodes is poisoned at his rehearsal dinner on the hotel’s sightseeing cruiser. His psychic bride, Dorian Starwood, never saw it coming. An old friend of Liz’s great-aunt Amelia, the celebrity psychic, engages Liz to find out who intended to kill her intended. With her Macaw, Barnacle Bob, squawking “Pop Goes the Weasel” at Dorian’s pet ferret, and the streets teeming with mermaids in tails, Liz has got to wade through the weirdness and cast a wide net for the killer—before she’s the next one to sleep with the fishes.
Series: A By The Sea Mystery
Author: Kathleen Bridge
Genre: Cozy Mystery/
Publisher: Lyrical Underground
Page Count: 200
Rating: 
From Lyrical Underground comes a new addition to Kathleen Bridge’s “A By The Sea Mystery” series, Evil By The Sea.
Aunt Amelia may not be the main character, but she is the most interesting. Her way of referring back to her heyday as a movie and television star whenever an odd occurrence comes up, or a murder investigation keeps readers smiling. In this quirky cozy, most of the characters have great personalities and are more than willing to lend a helping hand when Liz gets involved with solving a crime.
I say that this book is a quirky cozy because it doesn’t fit into any particular genre within cozy book categories. It is a standard murder mystery, a paranormal mystery but has no ghosts, and even a witchcraft based mystery all rolled into one. All of these things are also what makes this book a page-turner and hard to put down.
Evil By The Sea is an adventure where nothing is as it seems. We have psychics who apparently can’t really see the future but are good at guessing. We have business owners who are willing to overlook the obvious and do whatever is needed to keep their guests happy and paying their bills. To say the least, the characters are quirky, or maybe I should say they are oddballs in every way, which makes them a delight to read about. The victim is not liked but not necessarily a bad guy. The suspects are all a little demonish worthy, and when the killer is revealed, it comes as no big surprise to the reader, but a massive surprise to some of the characters.
All in all, this cozy book stands on its own, has great entertainment value, and keeps the story in line and on target. Readers will love the characters and the location and will crave more. I am happy to recommend this book and series to readers who delight in quirky stories and fun-filled action.
Readers who enjoyed Evil By The Sea may also enjoy Darci Hannah’s incredible “A Very Cherry Mystery” or the lovely Caroline Fardig’s fantastic series “A Southern B&B Mystery”.
About the Author:
Kathleen started her writing career working at the Michigan state university news in East Lansing, Michigan. Go Spartans!
She is the author of the Hamptons home and garden mystery series from Berkley/Penguin Random House and also the author and photographer of an antique’s reference guide, lithographed paper toys, books, and games, a member of Sisters-in-Crime and Mystery Writers of America, and a creative writing instructor at the William Cullen Bryant Library in Roslyn, New York. Go libraries!
She is also an antique and vintage dealer in Long Island, New York. Go shopping!
Represented by Dawn Dowdle at Blue Ridge Literary Agency.
Contact Kathleen: info@kathleenbridge.com
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