In
the small town of Duck, North Carolina, Dae O’Donnell
is not only the current mayor, and proprietor of the curiosity
shop, Missing Pieces, she’s also a gifted finder. This
means she can touch objects and find their history, or touch
people who have lost something and then find it for them.
This is the fifth
book in the Missing Pieces mystery series, and with each book,
Dae’s talents grow stronger. Dae’s father sent
her an amber necklace, an antique he’d found, and it
turns out the necklace brings Dae into up-close-and-personal
contact with the spirit of Maggie Madison, a long (as in centuries)
dead serving wench. Maggie inhabits Dae, and insists that
her bones be dug up and buried with her lover’s remains.
Poor Dae, when
Maggie pops up at will and throws herself at every man in
sight, it’s hard to keep her presence secret. This is
especially problematic after Dae accidentally discovers a
dead man’s bones in a buried racecar. The man, Lightning
Joe was murdered 40 years ago and most of the suspects are
former police deputies. When Dae’s mayoral opponent,
Mad Dog Wilson is taken into custody for the murder, Dae knows
she has to find the true killer. Not only for the sake of
justice for Joe, but to keep her own political career from
going down the tubes when people think she set this up to
get Mad Dog out of contention for becoming the next mayor.
This is such an
interesting book; I really couldn’t put it down. The
series gets better and better. I’ve grown to feel right
at home in Duck, and as though I know Dae and the other regular
townies in person. The mystery is clever; I never would have
guessed the outcome. The setting is perfect for a present
day mystery, as well as one from the distant past and one
from ancient Duck history.
The Lavene team
has done it again: they’ve produced a first-class cozy
with a strong element of the paranormal and made every single
word believable. While you can never go wrong with a Joyce
and Jim Lavene book, I super-extra recommend “A Finder’s
Fee,” and while not necessary to read these in order,
I do think the series is best enjoyed if you get all five
books and read them chronologically. They’d be perfect
for a nice long snowy weekend escape from a storm, curled
up by a fireplace with a nice cup of cocoa.
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