Ellery Adams. A Deadly Cliché. New York: Berkley Prime Crime, 2011.

Labor Day is approaching, and Oyster Bay, North Carolina, is bustling in preparation for a busy extended weekend. A popular tourist destination, the quaint village needs a spree of burglaries about as much as it needs a hurricane. Unfortunately, both are making their presence known. When the burglaries turn deadly, Olivia Limoges springs into action. A wealthy woman who owns about half of the town and genuinely cares for its citizens, she does not want Oyster Bay to get the reputation of being unsafe (even if it does weather the occasional storm). As a friend, fellow member of the Bayside Book Writers, and potential love interest of Sawyer Rawlings, Oyster Bay’s chief of police, Olivia has an inside source to the details of murders and robberies. Enlisting the help of her fellow writers and beloved poodle, Captain Haviland, Olivia realizes that the perpetrators leave clues in the form of clichés. Her quick wit will come in handy when she comes face-to-face with the criminals.

In the midst of exposing the Cliché Killers, Olivia also makes a personal discovery. For the past thirty years, she has accepted the fact that her father was lost at sea. When Olivia receives a letter telling her that her father is alive, but ill, and demanding $1,000, she writes it off as a blackmail ploy. However, when her curiosity gets the best of her, Olivia uncovers a stunning truth.

A Deadly Cliché is the second title in the “Books by the Bay Mystery” series.

Check the availability of this title in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog, or start with the first “Books by the Bay Mystery,” A Killer Plot.

Comments Off on Ellery Adams. A Deadly Cliché. New York: Berkley Prime Crime, 2011.

Filed under 2010-2019, 2011, Adams, Ellery, Coast, Mystery, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places

Comments are closed.