Death at the Deep Dive (Secrets and Scrabble 7) by Josh Lanyon

[Ulysses]

Death at the Deep Dive (Secrets and Scrabble 7)
By Josh Lanyon
JustJoshin Publishing, 2022
Four stars

I really like this series. Ellery Page, the former-teen-slasher-star turned book seller, and Jack Carson, his police chief boyfriend, made a great duo, as in this 6th (numbered 7 for some reason) entry into the charming Pirate’s Cove series.

Ellery finds a deep-sea-diving collector’s bag in the back of his storage closet, and in it a fortune in antique gold doubloons. Once more, only partly against his better judgment, Ellery gets dragged into a mystery that – no surprise – ends up with a murder.

By my reckoning, Ellery’s only lived in Pirate’s Cove, on Buck Island, for less than a year. It’s been a busy year, and finally his relationship with Chief Carson and the progress on his family’s crumbling manse is moving forward. I liked all of that a lot, because I am an old house buff, and of course, a romantic.

Lanyon is a very good writer, and all of her details and characters are carefully plotted out – which is essential, as Buck Island is the Peyton Place of coastal romance drama. Of particular interest in this book (the penultimate one in the series?) is Ellery’s discovery of more information about his great-great-great Aunt Eudora Page than ever before. More than he ever bothered to wonder before, in fact. As Eudora becomes real to Ellery, tied up in the current mystery and possibly an old murder, his own feeling of belonging in Pirate’s Cove deepens.

One thing I really love is that this is a young, handsome, “Hollywood” boy – son of a celebrity, too – who revels in spending time with people older than his parents. He values these lifelong denizens of Buck Island, and enjoys being part of their lives. I mean, it’s only been a year, but Ellery has really evolved as a man, and while there’s nothing startling about that, Lanyon portrays this across the series in subtle, meaningful ways.

I’m patiently waiting for the next book; not for the inevitable mystery, but to see how everyone is doing.

[Lori]

I really like this series, too. It's got the great characters and reliably good plots of any long-running mystery series. There's *supposed* to be a book #6, Lament at Loon Landing, which has been delayed. Lanyon had COVID last year, and got behind on a few projects, apparently. She's also written that nothing that happens in #7 affects what happens in #6.

[Ulysses]

I guess I don't pay enough attention...glad to know there is a book 6 and i'm not crazy like the Silver Sleuths.

[Lori]

I was holding off on buying #7 - and one day #6 disappeared from Amazon! So I looked up the author's website and asked via her "contact me" form. I don't like to read series out of order, but I made an exception here.