In the seaside town of Lighthouse Cove in northern California, everyone knows the best man for the job is actually a woman—contractor Shannon Hammer. But while Shannon can do wonders with a power drill and a little elbow grease, she’s about to discover that some problems aren’t so easily fixed....
Shannon’s home-renovation and repair business is booming, but her love life needs work. On a blind date with real estate agent Jerry Saxton, she has to whip out a pair of pliers to keep Jerry from getting too hands on. Shannon is happy to put her rotten date behind her, but when Jerry’s found dead in a run-down Victorian home that she’s been hired to restore, the town’s attractive new police chief suspects that her threats may have laid the foundation for murder.
Determined to clear her name, Shannon conducts her own investigation—with the help of her four best friends, her eccentric father, a nosy neighbor or two, and a handsome crime writer who’s just moved to town. But as they get closer to prying out the murderer’s identity, Shannon is viciously attacked. Now she’ll have to nail down the truth—or end up in permanent foreclosure.
Kate
Carlisle on Creating Lighthouse Cove
Hello,
my name is Kate Carlisle, and I have power over life and death.
Fictionally
speaking.
I’ve
just launched my second mystery series, The Fixer-Upper Mysteries, with A
HIGH-END FINISH (available now in paperback and ebook), and I brought to life
an entire town for your reading
pleasure.
At first
glance, Lighthouse Cove is an idyllic northern California coastal community,
with a charming downtown and amazing views everywhere you look, but behind that
perky façade is a growing sense of unrest. (This is a mystery series, after
all.) Those with all the wealth want more of it, and they won’t let
small-minded townies get in their way.
Shannon
Hammer bridges the gap between have and have-not. She’s blue collar all the
way, townie to her core, but she makes nice with the rich and powerful because her
construction company is the go-to choice for the wealthy owners of all of the cliffside
Victorian homes in need of restoration. In Lighthouse Cove, the best man for
the job is a woman.
The
Bibliophile Mysteries, my first mystery series, are set primarily in San
Francisco, so I work within the framework of a place that really exists. With the
Fixer-Upper Mysteries, though, I needed to create Lighthouse Cove from the
ground up with such a sense of history and place that it would feel as real to
readers as it does to me.
From A High-End Finish:
I turned up the radio to distract
myself and cruised through downtown past the Town Square on my way to one of my
houses a few streets north of Main Street.
The Town Square was pretty much
deserted at this time of the morning. In the center of the grassy square, a
large gazebo was set beneath sheltering trees. During the summer, free band
concerts were held there on the weekends. Everyone in town turned out, carrying
their lawn chairs and picnic hampers. The ice cream shop on the corner did a
bumper business on those nights. Some of my earliest best memories had taken
place right here. Fireworks. Marching bands. My mom and dad holding hands. Ice
cream.
Now, though, the Square was
silent. I scanned the area anyway on the off chance that I’d catch a glimpse of
one of my girlfriends opening her shop, but the only place open was the diner
on the corner. The other shops on the Square wouldn’t open for business for
another two hours or more.
It was just as well, I realized
as I drove on. I should probably avoid the area for the next few days. I knew
my gossip quotient had skyrocketed since I’d stumbled over Jerry’s body on
Sunday. Everyone in town would be vying to get the inside scoop from me, but I
dreaded the whispers and questions that would follow. I had to endure scrutiny
and doubt from the new police chief, but not from people I’d known my entire
life.
I hope Lighthouse
Cove will be a town you’ll enjoy visiting again and again. Grab A HIGH-END
FINISH to get in on The Fixer-Upper Mysteries from the very beginning!
A lifelong love of old books and an appreciation of the art of bookbinding led Kate to create the Bibliophile Mysteries, featuring rare book expert Brooklyn Wainwright, whose bookbinding and restoration skills invariably uncover old secrets, treachery and murder. Kate is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers and Romance Writers of America. She loves to drink good wine and watch other people cook.
Despite the appearance of overnight success, Kate's dream of publication took many, many years to fulfill.
Ms. Carlisle has a gem of a series on her hand. I am looking forward to seeing more of Shannon and Lighthouse Cove. This book just shot on to my "favorites" list!
Rating: 5 stars
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All conclusions reached are my own.
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