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    Murder on the Rocks
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    Murder on the Rocks
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    Murder on the Rocks
    Ebook283 pages5 hours

    Murder on the Rocks

    By Karen MacInerney

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Trading in Texas heat for Maine's tangy salt air, Natalie Barnes risked it all to buy the Gray Whale Inn, a quaint bed and breakfast on Cranberry Island. She adores whipping up buttery muffins and other rich breakfast treats for her guests until Bernard Katz checks in. The overbearing land developer plans to build a resort next door where an endangered colony of black-chinned terns is nesting. Worried about the birds, the inevitable transformation of the sleepy fishing community, and her livelihood, Natalie takes a public stand against the project. But the town board sides with Katz. Just when it seems like things can't get any worse, Natalie finds Katz dead. Now the police and much of the town think she's guilty. Can Natalie track down the true killer before she's hauled off to jail...or becomes the next victim?

    Murder on the Rocks is an Agatha Award nominee.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLlewellyn Worldwide
    Release dateSep 8, 2010
    ISBN9780738716862
    Author

    Karen MacInerney

    Karen MacInerney is the housework-impaired author of fourteen books, including the Gray Whale Inn series, the Urban Werewolf trilogy, the Dewberry Farm Mysteries, and the Margie Peterson Mysteries. She lives in Austin, Texas, with two children, her husband, and a menagerie of animals. For more on Karen and her work, visit www.karenmacinerney.com.

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    Reviews for Murder on the Rocks

    3.5/5

    138 ratings17 reviews

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    • 2/5
      I would have given the book another star if the Kindle version was better edited.
    • 1/5
      Got a few pages in and realized this was going to be one of those books where most of the plot is setting up the victim to be so annoying and overbearing that you're happy when he's killed. So not going to waste my time.
    • 2/5
      I picked this up to see what a different (than the Home Repair is Homicide series by Sarah Graves) Maine island mystery would be like. The writing wasn't bad, but I thought that the story was just a bit boring and very, very predictable.Nat owns the Gray Whale Inn on Cranberry Island, which from stuff said in the story, seems to be near Mount Desert Island off the Maine coast. Her business isn't going great, only a couple of guests and one of the guests is a developer who wants to build a humongous resort that would siphon away more of her prospective customers.The resort would also destroy the terns habitat and nests and Nat and a couple of her fellow islanders have a committee to try and stop the developer for that reason too.Then-- the developer is found dead by Nat.From there the mystery starts, who did it. We know that she didn't do it, but the Sargent that comes over from the mainland doesn't. I have to say that his insistence on her guilt got a bit repetitive to me and started to seem not so realistic.So, Nat looks into the murder herself. And that goes about the same as it usually does with things through windows, and Nat getting hurt a lot.There was also a romantic subplot that I did find interesting because it was done in a more subtle way than most mysteries these days. It wasn't rushed and was left open ended (in a good way) for the subsequent books in the series.Again, overall it wasn't badly written. The characters were good, the description was great. I just wish that the plot had been different/more interesting/better.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed reading Murder on the Rocks too. It is the first book of the Gray Whale Inn Mysteries. The characters were engaging. The suspense was good. I did know how some of the characters were still around from reading Death Runs Adrift first.I would love to read the other 4 books in the series sometime.Natalie has been on Cranberry Island for three months. She has bought the Gray Whale Inn and hoping to make ago of it. But a big resort wants to build right next to her property. They want to make her place a parking lot. She is fighting it. When the developer is found dead by her she becomes the chief suspect. They really are not looking for other suspects so Natalie decides she needs to find the murder first.There are a lot of people believing her guilty. It is getting very dangerous for Natalie after she is knocked out.There are recipes in the back of the book.I bought this book on Amazon.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this cozy mystery. The setting was lovely and the characters fairly believable. Having been born and raised in a small town rural area I know how those rumor mills work and the authored nailed it.This was one of the better first installments to a series I've read in quite a while. I'll definitely be continuing to read about the adventures on Cranberry Island!
    • 4/5
      A pleasant and charming first novel set a B&B. The mystery has murder, accidents and love, all set in the backdrop of an island in Maine.
    • 2/5
      I really wish to stay Gray Whale In and have a breakfast. Tast so Yummy!!
    • 4/5
      This first in the Gray Whale Inn series set on an island off the coast off Maine features innkeeper & Texas transplant Natalie Barnes. It’s a charming cozy with a decent mystery, and mouth-watering descriptions of the breakfasts Natalie whips up for her guests.Read this if: you’re a cozy (murder) mystery fan who has B&B aspirations; or you are taken with the lifestyle and scenery of the NE coast of the USA.
    • 4/5
      What a delightfully, cleanly written mystery! This story held the intrigue and suspense to the very end then rewarded the reader with a few recipes for scrumptious treats! In an Island setting, Natalie buys a Bread and Breakfast only to discover it may be lost due to the planning of a new resort next door. Murder and mayhem breaks out and she is one of the prime suspects. All but two friends determine her to be guilty. She alone must prove her innocence but the other suspects are many. How will she prove her innocence -or will she? Clean for all ages and a fun book for Book Clubs to review
    • 3/5
      The first installment in a new series - the characters and location were very enjoyable, however story was a bit ordinary. I'll try the second soon to see if it was just the intro of the characters and setting that held off the story.
    • 4/5
      Easy, fun fast read. Owner of B&B on a small island off the coast of Maine is suspected of murdering the man who is trying to take over a bird sanctuary that ajoins her property. Lots of local fun characters. It was easy to figure out who the real murderer was.
    • 3/5
      Cute but typical story.
    • 4/5
      A Gray Whale Inn Mystery set on the Cranberry Islands off the coast of Maine. I REALLY liked the setting in this one, and found the characters and the plot engaging. This is the first in the series and was a weekly freebie a while back for NOOK. There were several items where I had to suspend belief when reading this one however.I have a little problem with anyone who would live on an island in Maine without a backup generator. With the winds as strong as they are in the Gulf of Maine, power losses are a way of life. I could tell the author was "from away" because anyone who lives here knows that when you lose power, you do NOT run a hot bubble bath (HELLO HELLO --the well pump requires electricity!!). And handing candles to your B&B guests and then saying a prayer that they won't burn the old place down!!! There were several other anomalies that just kept the picture from ringing true.Great mystery story though, with a share of greedy developers, unhappy locals, a summer college student trying to find herself, threatened terns nests, rocky cliffs, secret smuggling caves, a hint of future romance promised, an intelligent but again way too nosy amateur sleuth, and as has become de rigeur for cozies these days, there is lots of talk about food, and several good recipes. There are several suspects, lots of gore (so some might not call it a cozy), and I was kept guessing right up to the end. There are three more in the series, and this one leaves several open items that will be fun to follow in future episodes. In spite of the nit-picky details I mentioned, it does give a beautiful picture of rustic, small-town life on a Maine island. A particularly pleasant book for summer reading.
    • 1/5
      I couldn't read beyond the bulbous nosed, rich, jerk of a Jewish character. Changing his name to Smith would gain me as a reader, but would mean losing the authors prejudices.
    • 4/5
      I have been reading Ms.MacInerney since she published the speculative fiction trilogy [[ASIN:0345496256 Howling at the Moon (Tales of an Urban Werewolf, Book 1)]][[ASIN:0345496264 On the Prowl (Tales of an Urban Werewolf, Book 2)]][[ASIN:0345496272 Leader of the Pack (Tales of an Urban Werewolf, Book 3)]] and I knew then that she was an author to watch since I loved those books and recommended them to friends. Now Ms MacInerney tries her hand at true mystery and she shows how strong her writing chops really are.This is an excellent book and as a first in series,it does a terrific job of feeding us information on what appears to be long running characters, background and descriptions of the Maine coastal geography AND it has recipes used in the story in the back of the book!The mystery is a bit complicated only because of the sheer number of characters who are suspicious so it was a bit easy to figure out it was one of the few that didn't make the long list of suspects. Since this is a cozy series I forgive this and so should everyone, since we aren't really supposed to be reading a mystery as complicated as an Agatha Christie book, we are supposed to be relaxing and not over-taxing our brains!I highly recommend this book, but I am hesitant to spend so much money for the next few in the series, no matter how much I like the authors style.
    • 4/5
      This book is an enjoyable get-away in itself. The heroine is strong, she takes a lot physically in this book and keeps pushing forward. I look forward to this main character being developed further in the next books. The location, like any good cozy, becomes a character in itself. This island off Maine's coast is a delightful setting. There is room for growth and improvement by the author but this is certainly is a series to watch and follow.
    • 1/5
      If there were a way to give negative stars, this book would have earned them. How stupid do some heroines have to be? This woman is dumb. And I think she's about to get in a boat alone and go face down the murderer that only she knows about. Insufficient clues have been given for me to solve the murder, and I'm a darn good solver.

      The descriptions are inadequate, the passage of time has inconsistencies, and the woman is so stupid. She gets asked to dinner by the guy she likes; she goes, but she is pretty sure he has a girlfriend in another town. She never asks him if he is seeing someone. She takes lackadaisical care of her niece, who almost drowns. She doesn't set good boundaries with people, and sneaks around avoiding people at times.

      I've stopped 2/3rds of the way through the book because I'm done. I don't care that there are 5 others about this town. Perhaps he future writing is better, but I'm done.