The summer guests

Gerritsen, the physician and author who wrote the popular medical mystery series Rizzoli and Isles, focuses on former CIA agents in her delightful new series, the Martini Club mysteries. In the second installment (following The Spy Coast, 2023), the four longtime operatives and friends who retired together to Purity, Maine, investigate the disappearance of a teen girl and the reappearance, in corpse form, of another, long-vanished young woman. Trouble comes to Purity when the owners of a Gatsby-esque mansion on the lake return for the summer; the teen girl in the group vanishes--leaving behind only her backpack, found on the road. The CIA retirees join forces once again with the local police chief, revealing miles of ill will between the locals and the summer people, and unearthing long-buried secrets. CIA agent Maggie is the sardonic lens for much of the action. Fun and fascinating to watch Maggie and friends pivot from drinking martinis at their monthly book club to full-on use of their survival and investigative skills.

Retired CIA agent Maggie Bird and her ex-spy friends attempt to track down a missing teenage girl in Gerritsen's lively sequel to The Spy Coast. After 15-year-old Zoe Conover vanishes during a family vacation in the small hamlet of Purity, Maine, Maggie and her martini-sipping cohorts jump on the case, earning the begrudging respect of local police chief Jo Thibodeau. The mystery deepens when authorities dredge up decades-old human remains from a pond next to the property where the Conovers were staying. Unwilling to write off the discovery as a coincidence, Maggie and her team launch a wide-ranging investigation that reveals dark secrets about a mass killing in 1972 and reignites rumors that Purity hosted government drug experiments throughout the '60s. Meanwhile, sparks start to fly between Maggie and her ruggedly handsome neighbor, Declan Rose. As in the first book, Gerritsen paints Maggie and her crew with a fine brush, and strikes a satisfying tone that's neither too dour nor too twee. These sexagenarian spies are hitting their stride. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Mar.)

Summer guests find big trouble in Purity, Maine, in this sequel toThe Spy Coast (2023). In 1972, a Purity policeman watches a driver mow down and kill three innocent people on Main Street. Then the madman shoots the officer, and soon they are all dead. Investigators never learn why such an ordinary, apparently law-abiding citizen suddenly committed such a ghastly act, and the sad story gradually fades. Jump a half-century to the present day, when the Conovers, a family of longtime summer residents, are arriving back in town. Fifteen-year-old Zoe goes swimming in Maiden Pond with a newfound friend and mysteriously disappears later that day. She is an excellent swimmer and diver, so drowning seems unlikely. Perhaps she has been abducted, perhaps worse. She is not "the sort of girl you'd think would get into trouble." Naturally, Zoe's parents are frantic. Enter acting Police Chief Jo Thibodeau and the Martini Club, a delightful group of five retired government spooks who just love a good puzzle to keep their aging brains in shape. They are merry meddlers who keep trying to help Thibodeau, a "dogged investigator" who resists their aid, or tries to. The Martini Club asks the acting chief to keep them in the loop, and of course she wants them nowhere near the case. But by that time, the five ex-spies are already involved, and one of them, Maggie Bird, surmises that this is most likely a kidnapping case. Maiden Pond is central to the story. There are a mix of houses around it, on one side seasonal rentals for the well to do, and on the other--the marshy, buggy side--permanent homes for the locals, such as the son of the long-ago murderer. Nobody waves at Reuben Tarkin, a social outcast because of his father's heinous crime. The Conovers say he'd harassed their nanny to the point where she'd suddenly up and quit. Meanwhile, the investigators chase down clue after clue, wondering the who, what, and why of it all. The Conovers doubt Thibodeau's abilities, believing she's in over her head. The Martini Club folks continually impress her with their insights. "You people justlove being smarter than me, don't you?" But secrets and plot twists abound, and their collective intellect may not be enough. A complex mix of fright and fun. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.