Shadows of a Down East Summer: An Antique Print Mystery

Wait's engaging fifth Antique Print mystery (after 2005's Shadows at the Spring Show) takes antique print dealer Maggie Summer to fictional Waymouth, Maine, where her plans for relaxing with her boyfriend, Will Brewer, and visiting Will's Aunt Nettie get derailed. Enlisted to examine a recently discovered diary kept in 1890 by 18-year-old Anna May Pratt, who posed for Winslow Homer, Maggie inherits the diary after someone bashes in the head of its owner, Carolyn Chase, with a rolling pin. As Maggie once again turns amateur sleuth, she comes under pressure from locals who believe the diary could reveal long-kept secrets about the famous artist and his relationship to their community. Wait, herself an antiques dealer who lives on the Maine coast, does a good job depicting smalltown Maine and recreating 19th-century journal entries. (Apr.)