Murder Most Maine

The only redeeming quality about the Gray Whale Inn series is that it is set in Maine.

Or, at least, that was the appeal. I picked up the third installment in preparation for a marvelous week-long vacation in southeastern Maine. My conclusion is that the author only captures Maine by mentioning lobsters, lobster men, and lighthouses despite having lived there. The author is not able to capture dialects or even differentiate between different character's speech patterns. Every conversation is inane and reminds me of writing I did in high school.

Even worse than that is the atrocious writing. I see that this author had several active series, so it's hard to say what this book might have been like if she focused on just one series at a time. An editor should have caught some of the typos and grammatical errors.

The problems with the writing go much deeper than spelling and grammar. For example, both in this and the other books I've read, Natalie seems to take little interest in the mental state of her guests when murders are committed. Instead, she immediately leaves the Inn for various nonsense reasons. Wouldn't an innkeeper stick around to both watch out for her property (especially this as Natalie's entire life's savings are tied up in the Inn)and maybe make some tea or coffee for the guests?

Another example occurs when a second member of a weight-loss retreat turns up dead at the Inn and both the keeper and police see no issue in immediate room and common area cleanings. No need to worry about obliterating evidence because we're in Maine!!!

Even worse is Natalie's constant snooping in guest's rooms. She goes beyond opening side table drawers to actually opening envelopes and costing up at desks to fully read every document. While I'm sure some level of curiosity goes on at B&Bs, this level of intrusion is hard to believe. Furthermore, Natalie tampers with evidence over and over in a way I suspect would not fly even on this fictional island. Her fingerprints showing up on documents of dead guests (this was in a prior book) would put her into hot water. But, no, we're going to go bake something super sweet (and put the recipe at the end of the book) and no one will notice!!!!!

The romance between Natalie Barnes and her supposedly hunky neighbor, John, is utterly ridiculous. It has been a little forced and more situational than anything, but that often happens in real life if there are few eligible single folk together for a whole summer on a small island. From the moment the group leader steps off the boat, John can't take his eyes off of her and spends a lot of time canoodling with her without saying a word to Natalie that's it's supposedly because she's having a rough time even before her business partner's death. Natalie spends the entire book obsessing about John and looking moonily at his cabin. Then, at the end, he suddenly proposes and claims it's Natalie he wants. I'm sorry, but where is the emotional connection other than Natalie's appreciation of his green eyes?

Ugh. I looked ahead to synopsis and reviews of the next 5 books in the series. Guess what? At least three or four books are about a developer trying to ruin the island and ending up dead. Another is about another retreat (this time yoga). Smuggler's Cove plays a part in another. Talk about repetitive plot lines!!! Only plucky, but irrepressibly stupid Natalie can crack the case!!! So, I'm done with this series. No more time shall be wasted upon it!