by Patricia Smiley (Author) 

   A new series, a new protagonist, a new setting; what’s not to love about Patty Smiley’s new Justice Bay Mystery?  It’s dark, but not too much. It’s mysterious (psychic), but not too much.  It has suspense, creepy scenes that make you shiver, danger, and action.  But the story is also about good people helping each other, making friends, learning to trust, and leaving an old, toxic place to embrace a fresh new life.

It’s hopeful and satisfying. Thanks, Patty!

Emmaline McCoy is living in Los Angeles, has a hectic job at a travel agency, and an on/off relationship with a guy not worth her lunch money.  Then she hears that her beloved Aunt Lydie has died in perhaps some suspicious circumstances.  She is grudgingly allowed two weeks off to settle up the estate.

In Justice Bay, Emmaline’s concern about the circumstances of her aunt’s death grows. Something is just not right. And it seems that her aunt’s memory is pointing Emmaline towards …. what?  Our heroine is sure the hints, clues, impressions, notes, photos, and artifacts from her aunt’s travels all point to … her murder. Who will believe her?

Interspersed between her sniffing out clues, Emmaline meets some fun friends in town who help her sell her aunt’s collectables and show her around.  I liked them!  I want to read more about them.  Neighbors Walter and Connor help her in other ways (oh, boy, wait till you read about that!).  And a tentative romance may be budding.  (Thanks, Patty, for not throwing in a bedroom scene!)

Well, you have to read the book, but things come to a scary head one night, and a lot of stuff changes for our heroine.  I do hope there are Books 2 and 3.  I want to get back to Justice Bay, watch Emmaline in action again, and have more coffee and lemon bars with some of the townspeople.