Iced Under

Barbara Ross

Dec 2017 · A Maine Clambake Mystery Book 5 · Kensington Cozies

About this eBook

A surprise delivery and family secrets send a young woman on a search for a killer in this cozy mystery by the author of Fogged Inn.

The snow is deep in Maine’s Busman’s Harbor and the mighty rivers are covered in ice. Snowden Family Clambake Company proprietor Julia Snowden and her mother, Jacqueline, are hunkered down for the winter when a mysterious package arrives—heating up February with an unexpected case of murder…
 
Inside the mystery package is an enormous black diamond necklace that once belonged to Julia’s great-grandmother and disappeared in the 1920s. Who could have sent it—and why? Julia’s search for clues takes her on a perilous journey through her mother’s troubled family history, from a squabble over the family fortune in “frozen water” to the recent unexplained death of Jacqueline’s long-lost cousin Hugh—who’d been missing and presumed drowned for more than forty years. To protect her mother’s inheritance, Julia must fend off a small army of feuding relatives, solve the mystery surrounding Hugh’s demise, and get back home before the next blizzard buries them all…

Praise for Iced Under

 

“The past and present collide in ways that are just as heart wrenching as they are heartwarming, and the genuine emotions they stir will satisfy fans of these exceptional novels.”—Kings River Life Magazine

 

“Another excellent installment of what I'm starting to consider the quintessential cozy cooking mystery series…. Such is Barbara Ross’s skill that you buy wholeheartedly into Julia and feel that this is a genuine representation of one person's life, incidental corpses and all.”—Criminal Element

Ratings and reviews

Iced Under by Barbara Ross is the fourth book in A Maine Clambake Mystery series. It is February in Busman’s Harbor, Maine. Julia Snowden is on her way to her mother’s house and stops to pick up the mail. There is a package for Jacqueline, Julia’s mother. Upon opening it, they discover a beautiful necklace inside with a note that states “For Windsholme” (the old family summer home that recently suffered fire damage). The necklace is called the Black Widow (contains a rare black diamond) and has been missing for almost a hundred years. There is no return address on the package and, as far as Jacqueline knows, she has no other family. Julia starts delving into her family history (hoping to find family for her mother) which sends Julia on a journey to Boston. It turns out that Julia and Jacqueline do have family, but one member just passed away. Jacqueline is to receive a nice inheritance from this lost relative (Hugh) but others are not happy about this revelation. Julia gets to meet new relatives, find out one of them is deceased, her sister is about to have her baby, a big snow storm is about to descent upon the area, and then the police show up. It turns out that Hugh did not die of natural causes. The suspect list is limited to the people inside Hugh’s home. Which one of them did in poor Hugh? Then an attempt is made on the matriarch’s life just after she stated she was going to change her will! Julia needs to flee and then find the culprit before the killer strikes again. Will Julia be successful? Join Julia on her latest escapade in Iced Under. Iced Under is my favorite book in the series. I enjoyed Julia’s search into her family history and how the Black Widow disappeared in the 1920s. I wish the mystery behind the matriarch’s attempted murder had been as puzzling (easily solved). Hugh’s death is also easily figured out (one question will give you the answer). Iced Under is well-written and has a good pace. While Iced Under is the fifth book in the series, it can be read alone. The author provides the needed information on the characters and previous books for the reader to catch up. I liked that we get to know more about Julia’s ancestors and her mother’s history. I found the history of ice very interesting (did not realize that it was such a cut-throat business). I found Iced Under a nice change of pace from the other books in the series. It was nice to get away from the family business. I give Iced Under 4 out of 5 stars (I liked it). I did feel that the ending was too abrupt. There needed to be a little more to the last chapter or an epilogue. I will be reading the next book in A Maine Clambake Mystery series.

theft, greed, Boston, family-dynamics, family, friendship, murder, murder-investigation, multigenerational, cozy-mystery, law-enforcement, mysteries, amateur-sleuth, suspense, blizzards***** Julia Snowden was born and raised in a small tourist town but went away to college and then to Manhattan for a career in high finance until it got the better of her. Now she is back and is a major force in the family clambake business and is back with her old flame (Chris) who runs a landscaping business. Her mother receives a rather small parcel in the mail with a family heirloom thought stolen in the 1920s, so Julia looks to friends to help unravel that mystery. Then there is the issue of line of inheritance to dig through! Julia is very good at digging into the past all while mom is nervously awaiting her other daughter's new baby during a blizzard. The biggest problem is that mom has no ideas about any possible living relatives. Julia digs that out and it all leads to very dysfunctional family, but in Boston of all places! Well crafted and with escalating suspense, plot twists and red herrings. A very good read!

Great book I love all of the books. Can't wait til the next one in December

About the author

Barbara Ross is the author of the Maine Clambake Mysteries and the Jane Darrowfield Mysteries. Her books have been nominated for multiple Agatha Awards for Best Contemporary Novel and have won the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction. Barbara’s Maine Clambake novellas are included along with stories by Leslie Meier and Lee Hollis in holiday anthologies from Kensington Publishing. Barbara and her husband live in Portland, Maine. Readers can visit her website at www.maineclambakemysteries.com.