It's springtime on Cranberry Island -- and love is in the air. It seems like every woman has the hots for buff trainer Dirk De Leon. He and his equally-gorgeous business partner, Vanessa Black, are leading a weight-loss retreat at the Gray Whale Inn -- forcing innkeeper Natalie Barnes to lighten up her butter-laden breakfast menu.

The mood on the island darkens when two grisly discoveries are made. The first is a skeleton walled up at the island's lighthouse. The second is a corpse of the fresh variety -- the handsome Dirk Could the spirit that once embodied the skeletal remains -- perhaps the lighthouse keeper who disappeared a century ago -- be responsible for Dirk's death?

The police pin the blame on Natalie's boyfriend who -- to her dismay -- had a long-ago fling with Vanessa. To find the true killer and ease her own aching heart, Natalie must untangle the knot of jealous girlfriends and spurned admirers that once surrounded the hunky trainer.

Praise:

MacInerney adds a dash of the supernatural, throws in some touristy tidbits and finishes with some tasty diet-right recipes.--Publishers Weekly

All thumbs up for Murder Most Maine, another in the engaging series of Cranberry Island mysteries. Karen MacInerney writes with verve and vitality, and her Natalie Barnes is a Maine original. I'm ready to book a room at the Gray Whale Inn --Susan Wittig Albert, bestselling author of Nightshade and other China Bayles Herbal Mysteries