Ellen Elizabeth Hunter. Murder at Wrightsville Beach. Greensboro, NC: Magnolia Mysteries, 2005.

It’s mid-August, so Ashley Wilkes succumbs to the lure of the beach.  Sister Melanie has rented a large “cottage” (sleeps fourteen) at Wrightsville Beach. Ashley knows that she should stay in Wilmington and finish a 1920s house that she is restoring, but she needs a rest.  Rest is just what she doesn’t get.  Melanie’s rental is stocked to the roof with guests, including super-model Kelly Lauder.  On a visit to the local art gallery, Ashley, Melanie, and Kelly find the owner dead, and it’s off from there.  As Ashley fends off an unwanted suitor and begins to think that the killer may be after her, she worries about her husband Nick who has been hard to contact since he went on a special job for the CIA.

Hunter weaves in elements from other novels in the series, including Wilmington’s historic neighborhoods, sea turtle protection, and Ashley’s efforts to juggle her personal and professional responsibilities. Readers who enjoy these novels for the bits of area lore that they contain will be interested in the information on the use of German POWs on area farms during World War II.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2005, Coast, Hunter, Ellen Elizabeth, Mystery, New Hanover, Novels in Series

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