This book, Slipknot, precedes Fisherman’s Bend (also reviewed on Myshelf.com) and introduces us to Jane Bunker just after she has made the move back to her roots to restart her life as a small town insurance investigator for Eastern Marine Safety Consultants, after being an investigator and homicide detective in "big city" Miami. Retired from the Miami Police Department, tired of police investigations and the whole style of life that goes with that sort of work, she has come back to sleepy Cobscook Bay and Green Haven, Maine, where she was born, and from which she was whisked away when very young.  She is new here and stumbles on a death in the harbor while going to do a policy update for a local fishery that's the biggest employer in the small town  Times, motives and the trust she is trying to develop start fraying at the edges. Jane just wants to fit in and find a bit about her own history in this clannish area, where townspeople take care of themselves, their neighbors and families... all too carefully, it seems.

Jane thinks that this town will give her the peace and quiet she is craving and will prove to be her escape. However, as the skies cloud up suddenly and the seas swell to frightening heights, everything changes in Jane’s life, seemingly on the whim of the daily forecast of the weather and tides.

In Slipknot, a body is washed ashore near the fishery. No one really cares about the victim, Nick Dow, because he is the "town drunk." Not well liked around the area, he has made a rather rough name for himself, including the night before his untimely death, at the Town Council Meeting.   Someone wants to develop a wind farm and someone else is against it.  The fishing might suffer, which would mean the townspeople would suffer the consequences. Who is behind the death, who stands to gain?  The town is filled to the brim with nice, well-meaning older folks, as well as young ones, who have been sheltered from life as the sea shelters the inlets around Cobscook Bay. But the real world is slowly impinging on the still waters of the Bay and the town of Green Haven.

Slipknot is the first mystery novel from this very accomplished writer.  I am going to repeat what I finished the review of Fisherman's Bend with.  Having just read two books by this really neat author, I am totally impressed with her acuity and ability.   She has written several Non-Fiction books, all having to do with the surrounding countryside and boats she loves with her very soul.  In those books she tries to show you and tell you what each sailor's knot means and how to tie it.  Ms. Greenlaw was given credits and a prominent role in the movie A Perfect Storm, because of her life as Captain of a swordfishing boat and her knowledge of life in New England.  She is a very intelligent writer who has a lot to say in her homespun way, so sit down in your most comfortable chair, grab a coffee or iced tea and read, enjoying a taste of her life in quaint Maine with the Lobster boats, the fisheries and the people who struggle to make a living doing what not too many others have the right amount of appreciation for these days.  I love her writing. Of course, I am biased, because I love books that reflect a look back towards our pasts and shine a light on "real people" who live real lives.