{"id":50950,"date":"2024-03-13T06:00:53","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T11:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/?p=50950"},"modified":"2024-03-01T16:26:19","modified_gmt":"2024-03-01T22:26:19","slug":"smile-beach-murder-by-alicia-bessette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/smile-beach-murder-by-alicia-bessette\/","title":{"rendered":"Smile Beach Murder by Alicia Bessette"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In this cozy mystery series kick off, author Alicia Bessette introduces us to the colorful cast of characters living on Cattail Island off the coast of North Carolina in Smile Beach Murder,<\/em><\/strong><\/a> the first book in the Outer Banks Bookshop Mystery<\/strong> series.\u00a0 Callie Padget grew up on the island and has now returned from Charlotte after her job writing for a newspaper was eliminated.\u00a0 As glad as she is to reconnect with her uncle and see long lost friends, the island holds bittersweet memories for her.\u00a0 Years earlier, her mother fell off the lighthouse deck on Smile Beach and was killed.\u00a0 It has never been clear to Callie what exactly happened the night her mother fell.\u00a0 Was it an accident, murder or suicide?<\/p>\n

Callie soon finds a job at the local bookstore where she spent many hours after her mother’s death reading everything she could get her hands on.\u00a0 She also runs into long lost friend Eva Meeks, who runs Meeks Hardware, along with her sister.\u00a0 \u00a0Eva shares with Callie that she may have discovered a long lost secret of the island and is on the hunt for a buried treasure. During a late night phone call, Eva begs Callie to meet her at the lighthouse at Smile Beach to find out more about the treasure.\u00a0 When Callie arrives, she discovers the worst possible scenario – Eva has fallen from the top of the light house in exactly the same way as her mother did 10 years ago!<\/p>\n

As Callie begins her amateur investigation, she makes some of the residents angry along the way.\u00a0 From the remaining family members who run Meeks Hardware to the richest family in town, Callie has a tendency to stir the pot when she uncovers clues that may indicate that Eva did not jump off the lighthouse and was pushed.<\/p>\n

Simultaneously investigating her mother’s mysterious fall and the most recent event at the lighthouse, Callie learns the hard way how sticking her nose into the investigation can be risky as she is attacked by a masked perpetrator who she believes was trying to throw her off the trail.\u00a0 Soon thereafter, she befriends the new martial arts teacher in town, Tony Dodge, and a budding romance ensues after he offers to give her private self defense courses.<\/p>\n

As Callie gets nearer to uncovering what truly happened to her mother and to Eva years later, another victim is discovered.\u00a0 Callie wonders if she will uncover the truth before she becomes the next victim.\u00a0 Bessette not only has written an engaging mystery, she has also made the setting of the Outer Banks come alive to the reader.\u00a0 The sand, breeze and salty air are vivid in this debut mystery.\u00a0 If you are looking for a cozy mystery that has a spectacular setting and memorable characters, pick up Smile Beach Murder<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, the series launch of the Outer Banks Bookshop Mystery<\/strong> series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this cozy mystery series kick off, author Alicia Bessette introduces us to the colorful cast of characters living on Cattail Island off the coast of North Carolina in Smile Beach Murder, the first book in the Outer Banks Bookshop Mystery series.\u00a0 Callie Padget grew up on the island and[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,15,5,1,8],"tags":[5981,8185,8188,1193,8207,8186,8187],"class_list":["post-50950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-library-displays","category-read-a-likes","category-reference","category-staff-picks","tag-cozy-mystery","tag-lighthouse","tag-mysterious-death","tag-north-carolina","tag-outer-banks","tag-treasure-hunt","tag-vintage-bookshop"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-dfM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50950"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51232,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50950\/revisions\/51232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}