ICED UNDER

By Barbara Ross

Winter has arrived with a vengeance in the coastal town of Busman’s Harbor, Maine, and Julia Snowden is suffering from a major case of the winter blahs. Her family business, Snowden Family Clambakes, is closed until late spring, and her on-again, off-again (this time definitely on-again) boyfriend has left to help friends deliver a sailboat to Key West, Florida. Even Gus, Julia and Chris’s landlord and part-time boss in the restaurant they share, has closed the restaurant for a month and left with his wife for warmer places. So Julia’s glad when her mom calls and invites her to lunch, and readily agrees to stop at the post office and pick up her mother’s mail on the way.

Along with assorted circulars and bills, the mail includes a mysterious package with no return address, containing an antique diamond necklace. The necklace was nicknamed The Black Widow because of its huge center stone, a rare black diamond, and disappeared from Julia’s mother’s family almost 100 years ago. The only clue to the identity of the sender is a handwritten note inside the box, “For Windsholme,” the name of the old mansion on the family’s private island where they run the clambake business. When Julia takes the necklace to a local jeweler for a quick appraisal, she’s shocked to learn that the necklace is worth more than $2 million.

At her mother’s urging, Julia begins a search to find out more about the mysterious necklace, beginning her research at the Busman’s Harbor Historical Society. Her search eventually leads her to Back Bay, Boston, where she meets relatives neither she nor her mother ever knew existed.

The surprises keep coming as Barbara Ross spins a fascinating tale of long-ago family arguments, secrets, betrayals, and unrequited love. “Iced Under” is the latest in the Maine Clambake mysteries, a series that just keeps getting better! I can’t wait for the next one