Last Room at the Cliff’s Edge: A Detective Linda Mystery

This suspenseful series launch from McNease (the Kyle Callahan Mysteries) introduces retired homicide detective Linda Sikorsky. Linda has opened a “vintage everything” store in New Hope, Pa., where she lives with her wife, aspiring writer Kirsten McClellan, whose first novel features a lead based on Linda. But Linda’s past turns out not to be past. When they get caught in a torrential rainstorm while driving to a writer’s retreat in Maine that Kirsten is eager to attend, Kirsten wants to keep going. Linda persuades her that they need to stop for the night, which they do at the seedy Cliff’s Edge motel. Linda is suspicious of the creepy desk clerk, Lenny Winfrow, and that feeling is only intensified after she hears some odd noises from an adjoining room that Lenny insisted was vacant, but which the reader knows is occupied by an ambitious small-town journalist, Cayley Drees, who’s following up an anonymous tip. Plausible sleuthing and smart characterizations combine for a winner. (BookLife)