Paperback, published Berkley Prime Crime,December 2012. 4th in series.
This has been an interesting series to date. I bought the first one, A Timely Vision, when it came out several years ago and after reading it twice, added it to the permanent section of my library. The premise was simple, Dae O’Donnell is a ‘finder’, if someone on the island of Duck in the Outer Banks loses something they go to Dae, who holds their hand while they concentrate on the item, and she sees where it is. Since her family have lived here for generations, no one thinks anything of this, it’s just something Dae, and her grandmother before her, can do. Dae is Mayor, her grandfather was police chief before he retired, and her current boyfriend is a retired FBI agent. Until this book, when his old FBI partner arrives in town after she’s (mostly) recovered from a mental breakdown several years earlier but still in a time warp believing they have remained engaged.
Meanwhile Dae is having visions of a murder, a child’s abduction, and has been landed with an abandoned kitten. That’s a lot to cope with when your relationship is also crumbling, and your position as Mayor is being challenged by an arrogant unpleasant loudmouth who just might succeed in having you impeached on specious grounds. This series is deepening and maturing book by book. It began as rather fluffy and light-hearted, although a lot of fun to read. With the development of Dae’s gift and a more serious crime to investigate, this book, fourth in the series, has moved into rockier territory. It handles it well, although I wasn’t 100% happy about the hook that the authors left lying about in the final few lines. It felt a little too obvious. A sort of ‘please rush out and buy the next book because it’s going to be SO interesting,’ and I dislike the feeling of attempted manipulation. But all in all, this book has deepened and matured within the series and as I really like Dae, I probably will buy the next one, but in spite of the final lines, not because of them.