Chen’s second Jane Roberts mystery is full of madcap mayhem and a wide cast of characters with seriousness and shenanigans planned for New Year’s Eve. The book starts with the wrong person receiving a request to pick up barrels from the docks of St. Frewin’s Island. The end result leaves a motley crew of Russians and an entitled Texas senator unhappy and the person who was supposed to pick the barrels up beaten and unconscious in the hospital, while Bernie and Geneva, the senator’s assistants, fight over unexpected riches. Not to be outdone, other members of the elite class have their other plans for New Year’s Eve, including a temporary kidnapping and a semi-public shaming that pull in even more nefarious characters.

Readers looking for a lighthearted read will likely find it in this brisk, amusing story that’s heavy on the hijinks but still full of skillful twists, both comic and suspenseful. Public Safety Officer Jane Roberts, her new assistant Israel, and other local law enforcement folks are kind of on the scent, but the abundance of players—and fresh, funny inventions like entrepreneur Gluella’s Lobster Brides! business— provide plenty of red herrings to throw them off the track. Jane’s determined to figure out why Troy was beaten and what a group of Russians is up to, but she’s realistically somewhat overmatched at times when it comes to keeping up with the densely layered schemes underway on a very small island.

With so many intriguing story threads and an extensive parade of characters who each get a crisp, memorable scene or two, readers will have to pay close attention to keep up with Chen’s wild plot. That makes it all the easier to root for Jane and the dazzling untangling that she, Storm, Helen, and Israel undertake to straighten out the whodunits and whodidn’ts.

Takeaway: Public Safety Officer Jane Roberts faces a sprightly, twisty island mystery.

Comparable Titles: Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, Sarah Strohmeyer’s Bubbles series.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A