Publisher's Weekly Review
Bestseller Greenlaw introduces an indomitable heroine, Jane Bunker, in her strong mystery debut, which finds the former Dade County, Fla., chief detective seeking her roots and a slower pace of life in her coastal childhood hometown of Green Haven, Maine. Starting over as a marine investigator for an insurance company, Jane happens upon the body of alcoholic cod fisherman Nick Dow, who washes ashore with a crushed skull beneath the docks of the fish plant Jane means to assess. The state police don't suspect foul play, but she does. Chasing the murderer, Jane becomes an accidental stowaway aboard a boat that heads into a fierce storm at sea. A cast of memorable New Englanders-especially fish plant foreman Cal Dunham and Jane's kooky but caring landlords, Henry and Alice Vickerson-enhance a fast-moving plot, while the nautical details will appeal to fans of Greenlaw's nonfiction books such as The Hungry Ocean and The Lobster Chronicles. Author tour. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
"Greenlaw, author of such nonfiction staples as The Hungry Ocean (1999) and The Lobster Chronicles (2002), turns her hand to fiction with this first installment of a projected mystery series. Jane Bunker gave up her law-enforcement job in Florida to become a marine consultant in Green Haven, Maine. She was hoping for a little quiet time, inspecting businesses for insurance-code violations, but what she found instead was a dead body, a murderous conspiracy, and a town where everybody seems to have a secret. The author, who lives in Maine (where she operates a lobster boat), does an excellent job of portraying a small town and its citizens. Her handling of the mystery elements of the story is less solid she's guilty of a few rookie mistakes, such as making key plot points just a little too obvious but she's a smooth writer, and Jane is a likable protagonist. Given room to grow, this series could enjoy a long life."--"Pitt, David" Copyright 2007 Booklist
Kirkus Review
First in a new series featuring a feisty marine investigator. Jane Bunker, 41 and burned out after years working Miami homicides, returns to Green Haven, Maine, the town she was born in and left at age seven. She settles in above the Vickersons' garage and works as a marine-insurance agent, a job that barely pays enough to keep her pokey old Duster running. When town drunk Nick Dow tumbles off the dock, she wonders if it's really an accident. There's his bashed head, for one thing, and the controversy he instigated about the plans for a wind farm that could destroy the local cod-fishing industry. Dow also had a profitable sideline as the local bookie, to whom a debtor code-named "34" owed $50,000. Luckily, Jane is befriended by Cal, the hunchbacked foreman at the Turner cod factory, who helps when she tangles with Blaine and Lucy Hamilton, Lucy's son, Alex, his hunky dad, Lincoln, Lincoln's brother, George, and Ginny, the obese owner of the cod plant. Arson, imported crabs and a ferocious sea battle are on the menu before Jane, with a few assists from her author, triumphs. Greenlaw (All Fisherman Are Liars, 2004, etc.) writes the best storm sequence this side of Hammond Innes, and you could build a boat from her description of its innards. Jane's a prize catch, and so are the crusty down-easters she lives with. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
The Maine harbor town of Green Haven is split over the issue of building a wind farm. When the body of the town drunk, who had violently opposed the project, is found under one of the docks, Jane Bunker, a former Miami senior homicide detective now working as a marine insurance investigator in the town where she was born, suspects foul play. Packing her fiction debut with local color, small town culture, and firsthand knowledge of the fishing industry, fishing captain and best-selling author Greenlaw (The Hungry Ocean; The Lobster Chronicles) tells her story with great joie de vivre and incredible skill. This debut mystery series is to be savored on all counts. Highly recommended. Greenlaw, who was profiled in Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm, lives on Isle au Haut, ME. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
