Hemlock Bay (Rachel Savernake Golden Age Mysteries Book 5)

Hemlock Bay is a new seaside resort that attracts diverse visitors: families seeking summer recreation, artists drawn to the seascapes, and those with criminal intent seeking anonymity. When crime-beat journalist Jacob Flint is visited by a fortune teller claiming to have foreseen a murder at Hemlock Bay, he consults Rachel Savernake, an enigmatic heiress and amateur detective, about the prediction. Intrigued, Rachel rents a cottage at the resort, partly to observe an artist she admires who is also staying there for the summer. Simultaneously, Basil Palmer, a mild-mannered accountant, travels to Hemlock Bay with the intention of murdering a man he blames for his wife's death six months earlier. A murder does occur at the resort. As Rachel investigates the tangled circumstances and examines suspects, their alibis systematically eliminate each one. Faced with mounting complexity and dwindling leads, Rachel begins to question whether this case exceeds her abilities to solve.