Publisher's Weekly Review
Whitney "Whit" Dagner, the narrator of this pleasing series launch from the pseudonymous Allan (the Tallie Graver series as Misty Simon), has left corporate Los Angeles for more relaxed Santa Catalina Island, opening a shop for tourists and assisting her brother, Nick, in running the family business: taking vacationers on a glass-bottomed boat to see life under the ocean. When the body of local businessman Jules Tisdale floats by the boat, the police quickly finger Nick as the perpetrator, as the two men had fought. Nick goes on the run, leaving Whit to figure out who's setting up her brother as the fall guy. Is it Jules's widow, who is making ambitious plans for her expected inheritance; his goddaughter, who's well accustomed to Jules's money; his cousin, who has a tumultuous history with Jules; or a man who claims Jules stole from him? Another murder causes further complications, but dogged Whit, with her screwball tendencies, is up to the challenge. Colorful characters determined to weigh into Whit's private life promise much fun ahead. Cozy fans will be charmed. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary. (Aug.)
Kirkus Review
Forget the people. Santa Catalina Island is the star of this series debut. Whitney Dagner left a lucrative but stressful life on the mainland and returned to Santa Catalina to open a gift shop and help run her semiretired grandparents' glass-bottom boat business. Goldy and Pops enjoy life while Whit and her brother, Nick, conduct boat tours, including one for the Chamber of Commerce's Person of the Year, the deeply unpopular Jules Tisdale, whose spacey wife, Tracy, is an old friend of Nick's. In the middle of a series of tours, Nick vanishes, but he returns in time to discover Jules floating under the boat. After an initial interview, the cops fasten on Nick as the killer, and Goldy and Pops ask Whit to prove him innocent. Another problem arrives in the form of Whit's ex-boyfriend Felix Ramirez, whom the local police have just hired as a diver. Not sure how she feels about Felix, Whit still accepts his help and that of her roommate, Maribel, who also works for the police. The manipulative Tracy had convinced Nick she was being abused by Jules, giving him a sadly plausible motive for murder and a reason to hide while a desperate Whit checks out the alibis of myriad people who might have wanted the obnoxious Jules dead. Allan supplies an appealing hero, a meager mystery, and a glorious setting. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Whitney Dagner is moving home to Catalina Island, but not to escape something horrible like a cheating boyfriend or a job that blew up. Instead, she's leaving the corporate world because she wants to join her brother Nick in running the tourist business that has been in her family for over 100 years. There, she takes groups on glass-bottom boat rides, while planning the grand opening of her gift shop. After taking the Chamber of Commerce for a cruise on the Sea Bounder, Whitney and Nick are shocked to see the corpse of wealthy Jules Tisdale, the town's soon-to-be-named "Person of the Year," floating under the boat. The police name Nick as the primary suspect in Tisdale's death, and he takes off, crashes his golf cart, and then vanishes. Whitney had thought that her grandparents were leaving the family business in capable hands when Nick first took over from them; now she isn't so sure. She turns reluctant amateur sleuth and teams up with her grandparents, her roommate, and an ex-boyfriend to search for other suspects. Even her cat Whiskers has a small role to play in gathering evidence. VERDICT The first in a new series by Allan, who has written cozies under a different name. It has an original setting and a unique job for the amateur sleuth, and it's a refreshing change to read about a sleuth who's not fleeing her past. Suggest to readers of Bree Baker's "Seaside Café" mysteries.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN
