Bookshop of Alder Cove

Nell Prentice inherits her godmother's bookshop in Alder Cove, complete with a tidal creek at the back door and an unpaid mortgage on the rare-book room. Her first week brings a body: the retired harbormaster, drowned in the creek, holding a leather-bound tide log. The sheriff says he slipped. Nell says somebody handed him a message. With the Tuesday book club and a teenager who lives for tide charts, Nell traces the log through harbor records and finds twelve pages cut out — all covering the night the old pier burned. Every member of the book club was on the fire crew that year. Every one of them has been quietly paying the harbormaster to forget which way the wind blew. And tonight, for the nautical-themed meeting, Nell is going to read the tide entries aloud. First in a bright, briny cozy mystery series about books, boats and a town that pays its debts in cash.