The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: A Jersey Shore Mystery

Anne Hardaway was looking forward to summer on the Jersey Shore. She has a lucrative contract as a ghostwriter for a radio psychologist and life was boring, but going well. Then the psychologist, Dr Arlene, shows up on her doorstep, claiming to want to work more closely with her on the book, and her good friend Delia's ward, Tracy, disappears. Well, the publisher is angry because nothing seems to be going on with the book, Dr Arlene is shopping all the time, NOT working, and Tracy seems to be a member of a witches' coven. One of the members of that coven is found dead on the beach, by Anne of course. Anne and the very attractive Detective Mark Trasker are determined to solve the mystery.I have only read one of the books in this series. I really enjoyed it and always meant to read another. I am glad that I did. There is alot going on in this mystery. Dr. Arlene has other issues than the book and there is more to the coven than meets the eye. I didn't guess the murderer until the author wanted me to, and that's getting harder to do, the more mysteries that I read. I am definitely going to read more of this series.

It can be very frustrating to the reader to come into a series mid-way. This book, number 4 of a series called "A Jersey Shore Mystery" is so inviting and easy to read that I never found myself wondering what had happened in the earlier books. I enjoyed it so much, however, that I do intend to find out. Set in Oceanside Heights, just a bit north of the famous Cape May, the ocean is an ever-present backdrop to the events that happen in Anne Hardaway's life. Anne is a 30-something ghostwriter, who inherited her small ocean-front home, and resides there with an elderly, one-eyed cat, Harry. A lot seems to have happened in Anne's life since the first book (I've yet to read books two and three, but will remedy that lack very soon.) Thank goodness, there is a new policeman in charge--the handsome, enigmatic Mark Trasker. (This is a relationship to which I look forward with great anticipation., but you'll have to read the book to find out just exactly why.)To find a grandmother caring for a grandchild or other young relative isn't exactly news any more, in today's world. Delia Graustark, the town librarian, has her teen-age niece Tracy, living with her; a typical cynical teen-ager who thinks no one in the world can understand her problems. When one of her friends is found dead, the aura of witchcraft quickly raises it's head, linking the two young women with others in town. Anne is still supporting herself with her ghost-writing, and the current live pretend-author, Dr. Arlene, as she's known to her supposedly adoring public, is a self-help guru, particularly in the field of parenting. For reasons mostly known only to herself, Dr. A. descends on Annie for the duration--ostensibly to help with the book, but in reality, because Dr. A. has an entirely different agenda. The two sets of stories are beautifully interwoven throughout the book. One set is Anne and Mark and the old-timers of the town who haven't forgotten Anne's mother, and aren't going to let Anne forget it either--and the other set is the loneliness and isolation of the teen-agers, set against the frantic Dr. A. Wonderful. On every level, this is a terrific book. Highly recommended!

I've really enjoyed this series, but I felt this book in the series was by far the lamest.The plot was very predictable and obvious. Though I didn't know exactly who the murderer was until the end, I felt that was more because I didn't try too hard to figure it out. Other aspects of the story were blatantly being set up for other purposes and I found myself trying to figure out what those were instead...and on those items, I was never wrong.Still a very nice, easy summer read that only took me a few hours.

Well the first thing I want to say about this book is that its FANTASTIC! Beth's insight into teen life and its brush with witchcraft is very relistic. I read this book in five hours I couldnt put it down until I knew who the killer was and I was stumped till the end . I have read all of Beth's Jersey Shore Mysteries and have enjoyed them all and this one did not dissapoint . If your looking for a great read check out this book and her other Jersey Shore Mysteries you wont be dissapointed!

Oceanside Heights is a small resort town founded by Methodist ministers on the Jersey shore. It is a place to organize camp meetings by the ocean. Paradise still lives here as people from around the world visit "God's Own Acre" to heal and find God's words. In spite of its Edenesque reputation, the town retains its sense of family even if this summer events will prove that feeling of security is false.Some of the town's teens form a witch's coven. Residents begin hearing chanting and see strange lights and shapes over the nearby ocean. While jogging on the beach early one morning, ghostwriter Anne Hardaway runs across the dead body of a teen and cryptic signs in the sand that no one can decipher. When the best friend of the deceased runs away from her home, her guardian asks Anne to find the missing Tracy. Anne becomes a friend with the coven members and their friends, one of whom is not exactly what he/she seems.THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA is an absorbing regional mystery that captures the atmosphere of a tourist town to near perfection. The teens steal the show, as they seem like a microcosm of today's young adults with many of them suffering serious problems. Author Beth Sherman does a brilliant job of portraying teen angst without corn or sentiment.Harriet Klausner