A Timely Vision-Joyce and Jim Lavene

A Timely Vision
Joyce and Jim Lavene
Berkley, May 2010, $6.99
ISBN: 9780425234754

On the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the village of Duck lives Dae O'Donnell, owner of the Store Missing Pieces. The store contains useful, valuable or kitschy items. She is also the mayor and everyone who knows her knows about her psychosomatic skills that she has used to help her neighbors on Duck.

At the Fourth of July party, Miss Mildred wants Dae to find her missing watch that she gave temporarily to her estranged sister Lizzie. The siblings never got along ever since Wild Johnny Simpson chose Miss Elizabeth over Miss Mildred. Dae sees the witch on Lizzie’s hand but no one has seen the woman for days until her body is found buried in sand on the beach. Circumstantial evidence points at Miss Mildred leading to the police arresting her. Dae refuses to accept the official reasoning so, with the help of newcomer former FBI Agent Kevin Brickman, they investigate the homicide.

This opening act of a new amateur sleuth is a wonderful mystery due to memorable eccentric characters including Duck. The whodunit is complicate enough to keep readers entertained and stymied as to who killed the sister. The heroine is sassy and spunky as she expects justice to occur. Joyce and Jim Lavene have shagged another hit series.

Harriet Klausner