Death at High Tide

Score: 4/5 Bookmarks

Thank you to Minotaur Books for gifting me a review copy of Death at High Tide by Hannah Dennison. This is the first in the Island Sisters Mystery series, and you can bet I’ll be reading the next book.

When Evie Mead’s husband dies suddenly, a note is found amongst his estate suggesting that she may actually own an old hotel on Tregarrick Rock, in the Isles of Scilly. (I had to look up where that was—an archipelago off the Cornish coast, in southwest England). Evie is still grieving and doesn’t want to deal with it all right now, but her sister is in town and has other plans.

So the two of them make their way to Tregarrick even though it’s the offseason, and the weather is pretty frightful. They have to wait until low tide and be hauled across the channel by tractor to even get there. The sisters pretend to be there scouting locations for a movie, so they can poke around without anyone suspecting who they actually are, but it doesn’t take long for things to start to unravel. The longer they stay on the island the more bizarre events become. There is murder, a famous photographer, a clairvoyant cat (sort of), an ex-con receptionist, and a Vicor. What more could you need?

I never fully worked out Evie’s sister Margot. She behaved erratically and I don’t feel like all of her actions were fully explained. There is a lot going on in the book, and several story-lines to keep track of, but it was loads of fun and all in all it was exactly the cozy mystery I needed.

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Synopsis:

Death at High Tide is the delightful first installment in the Island Sisters series by Hannah Dennison, featuring two sisters who inherit an old hotel in the remote Isles of Scilly off the coast of Cornwall and find it full of intrigue, danger, and romance.

When Evie Mead’s husband, Robert, suddenly drops dead of a heart attack, a mysterious note is found among his possessions. It indicates that Evie may own the rights to an old hotel on Tregarrick Rock, one of the Isles of Scilly.

Still grieving, Evie is inclined to leave the matter to the accountant to sort out. Her sister Margot, however, flown in from her glamorous career in LA, has other plans. Envisioning a luxurious weekend getaway, she goes right ahead and buys two tickets—one way—to Tregarrick.

Once at the hotel—used in its heyday to house detective novelists, and more fixer-upper than spa resort, after all—Evie and Margot attempt to get to the bottom of things. But the foul-tempered hotel owner claims he's never met the late Robert, even after Evie finds framed photos of them—alongside Robert's first wife—in his office. The rest of the island inhabitants, ranging from an ex-con receptionist to a vicar who communicates with cats, aren't any easier to read.

But when a murder occurs at the hotel, and then another soon follows, frustration turns to desperation. There’s no getting off the island at high tide. And Evie and Margot, the only current visitors to Tregarrick, are suspects one and two. It falls to them to unravel secrets spanning generations—and several of their own—if they want to make it back alive.