Black Swan: A Sam Acquillo Hamptons Mystery

A sudden storm drives Sam Acquillo and his girlfriend, Amanda Anselma, and their sailboat into harbor at Fishers Island in Knopf's tense fifth mystery featuring the ex-corporation man turned Long Island carpenter (after 2009's Hard Stop). While the couple await parts for their disabled boat, Christian Fey, the owner of the Black Swan, a small hotel Fey runs with his grown daughter and son, reluctantly gives them lodging. Other guests at the Black Swan, equally unwelcome, are Fey's three former business partners in a software company he helped found and to whom he apparently sold. When one of the former partners dies in circumstances that suggest a killer in their midst, Sam must ferret out the corporate secrets that threaten to engulf him and Amanda as well as the Feys. The vivid descriptions of an angry sea and the monster storm that strikes the island fairly dwarf the human threats facing Sam and Amanda. (May)