There’s More Than Just Fish Under the Sea in the Artistic Cozy “From the Murky Deep”
Author Kerry J. Charles combines her love of scuba diving, travel and extensive knowledge of art history in her Dulcie Chambers Museum Mystery series. Her second in this cozy series, From the Murky Deep (Edmund+Octavia Publishing), again features the backdrop of Portland, ME, and the Maine Museum of Art.
In book one, An Exhibit of Madness (review), we met Dr. Dulcinea “Dulcie” Chambers, the chief curator at the art museum. When someone killed her mentor — the board chairman of the museum — she used her knowledge of fine art to help Detective Nick Black of the Portland police find the killer.
VAN GOGH UNDERWATER
Now, Nick arrives at Kettle Cove beach in Cape Elizabeth where the body of a woman wearing scuba gear and an empty tank has washed up on the shore. It appears she died because she ran out of air.
Dulcie is surprised but happy when Nick calls her out of nowhere. She hasn’t heard from him for months, since she helped him figure out who killed the museum’s board chairman, Joshua Harriman. Curious. She’d thought there was a flirtatious connection between them then, although they’d only had dinner once. His phone call sparks a thrill of excitement.
But what Nick tells her is anything but romantic.
The drowned scuba diver had Dulcie’s phone number written on the inside of her left hand — Nick recognized it from the investigation of Joshua’s murder.
Dulcie doesn’t know why her phone number is inscribed on the dead woman’s hand. And stranger yet, Nick later tells her that the woman was carrying an airtight tube with an expensive van Gogh painting rolled inside. Someone had stolen the painting from a private collection in Boston the year before, and Nick can’t help but wonder if the theft involved Dulcie.
Read the rest of my review at BookTrib.com.
