Final Paring

Boston was loud, but the silence in Bracken Cove is deafening.

Mave O'Connor traded high-speed city sirens for the quiet pines of Maine, hoping for a "picturesque diorama" of a life. But when the town's most arrogant culinary star, Larsen Whitmore, is found dead at the base of Skylark Bluff, Mave realizes that small-town peace is just a carefully curated image.

While the local gossip pipeline—led by the formidable Odette Pike—points a finger at the town's "rough-edged" carpenter, Mave's detective instincts see a different story written in the tide. Between the high-stakes drama of the PTA gala and the hushed secrets of a high-end wine cellar, she discovers that everyone in Bracken Cove is protecting a vintage they can't afford to lose.

With her academic husband and two daughters in tow, Mave must navigate a landscape of social pruning and bitter blackmail. Can she catch a killer who moves with the perfect balance of a man afraid to spill his secrets, or will the truth be washed away by the rising tide?