Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Lament at Loon Landing
SERIES: Secrets and Scrabble
AUTHOR: Josh Lanyon
NARRATOR: Matt Haynes
PUBLISHER: JustJoshin Publishing
LENGTH: 6 hours and 6 minutes
RELEASE DATE: May 25, 2023
BLURB:
Fakes, folk music, and ghost fires.
When legendary folk singer Lara Fairplay agrees to make her comeback debut at Pirate’s Cove’s annual maritime music festival, everyone in the quaint seaside village is delighted—including mystery bookstore owner and sometimes amateur sleuth, Ellery Page.
Better yet, Lara is scheduled to perform a recently discovered piece of music attributed to “The Father of American Music,” Stephen Foster, which will hopefully bring large crowds and a lot of business.
Several mysterious accidents later, Ellery is less delighted as his suspicion grows that someone plans to silence the celebrity songbird forever.
REVIEW:
NOTE: This is the sixth book in this series and contains spoilers for the previous books. Each story begins after the previous book and the characters and the relationships build from one book to the next. I recommend listening to them in order 🙂
Jack and Ellery are moving along with their relationship. They are spending most nights together and working on fixing up The Captain’s Seat, the rather dilapidated ancestral home that Ellery has inherited. They are making progress, but there is a new roof required and a few other more costly repairs that Ellery isn’t sure he can afford.
Ellery’s mystery book store, The Crow’s Nest, is doing well thanks to the tourist season and folks being out and about. There is also a music festival (that hasn’t made much money) opening which will bring on more – especially as a famous (and possibly infamous) folk singer is returning to the island as well. But she’s been getting death threats and Ellery’s bestie Dylan has finagled a paying job for Ellery to try to figure out who is threating Lara Fairplay.
As usual, there are a number of potential suspects. Could it be a publicity stunt? Could there be bad blood between Lara and her former backup singer? And what about Dylan’s on again/off again girlfriend? What is her connection to this whole situation? Can Ellery figure out who is behind the death threats before something really happens? And what about the other body he stumbles over?
Not my favorite mystery of the series, but I did enjoy it and the fact that the action of this installment did move things forward a bit with Jack and Ellery. Jack has of course given up trying to dissuade Ellery from amateur sleuthing. And he needs the money. There are a few other new surprises here and Jack and Ellery are getting closer – despite some setbacks and some difficulties and disagreements about how Jack handles a case involving a friend. This series is such a nice change of pace from some of the other books I’ve read and I really enjoy this evolution of Jack and Ellery together.
Matt Haynes is as usual and consistent narrator. In this one he not only gets to provide Watson, Ellery’s puppy, with his barking voice, but he also gets to sing! There was a treat and I always enjoy Mr. Haynes performances in this series. I’m looking forward to more with baited breath. Recommended for fans especially of cozy mysteries highlighting a consistent case of characters.
RATING:
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