Bøger af Kerry J Charles

Dr. Dulcinea (Dulcie) Chambers has a lot on her mind. She's just opened a new exhibit of Winslow Homer watercolors at the Maine Museum of Art where she's the chief curator. The exhibit will be complete when the museum's director, the urbane Joshua Harriman, buys the final piece at auction. But when Dulcie discovers a body where the painting should have been, she's one of the primary suspects. Portland Police Detective Nicholas Black is on the case but finds he is less than objective when it comes to the attractive Dr. Chambers. As a native, Dulcie is firmly rooted in Maine but has risen to the top of the museum world quickly. She's confident in her work but not in her skills at a cocktail party. She'd rather be at home with a good glass of wine and a book, not to mention a hearty portion of chicken fried rice. Nick grew up in the socialite-filled and privileged world of Boston's elite, groomed for a career in law. He jumped ship, much to his family's horror, and chose the life of a police detective instead. He hasn't looked back and they won't forgive him.Piecing together clues while continuing to run a museum is not easy for Dulcie. When an attempt is made on her life, Nick knows that the situation is dire. Yet he has little experience with the art world, and must rely on Dulcie's knowledge and intuition. The missing painting must be the key, if only Dulcie and Nick could understand how.

Dulcie's old boyfriend, the adventurous, fun-loving, and decidedly good-looking Brendan MacArthur, reappears with a unique gift: a very old bottle of wine, one of several that he found in a shipwreck while scuba diving in Maine's cold Atlantic waters. With museum attendance low during a particularly brutal winter, Dulcie knows exactly what to do. The museum will host a wine tasting as a fundraiser featuring this old vintage. But when an icebreaker busts through the pack ice in Portland harbor the day after the festivities, the crew makes a gruesome discovery. Someone from the party didn't make it home, and instead wound up among the bobbing gray-blue sheets of ice floating from one side of the harbor to the other.Dulcie's knowledge of wine is needed by detective Nicholas Black as he sorts through the details of this case, but their budding relationship is also put to the test. Brendan MacArthur's sudden reappearance irritates Nick. Does he ignore his feelings and chalk them up to simple jealousy, or is there something else far more dangerous about this Brendan MacArthur that Dulcie and Nick have yet to discover?