Hint in the Hashtag is the nineteenth book in Kathi Daley’s heartwarming Inn at Holiday Bay series. The well-plotted storyline flows smoothly, and multiple twists and red herrings in the complex mystery keep the reader engaged. The setting is charming, and the well-developed characters are three-dimensional, compassionate, and caring. Every time I pick up one of Ms. Daley’s books, I know that I’m in for a treat, and I’ve never been disappointed. I highly recommend this series to readers who enjoy well-crafted cozy mysteries.
After Abby Sullivan lost her husband and their infant son in a tragic accident, she moved to Holiday Bay, Maine, opened the Inn at Holiday Bay, made a new life for herself, and found a home and a family. Georgia Carter, who has also overcome obstacles in her life, is the inn’s talented cook/baker and manager, and she and her Newfoundland dog, Ramos, live with Abby, Rufus, a Maine Coon, and Molly, a terrier mix, in a cottage on the property. Georgia’s cable cooking show, “Cooking with Georgia,” is doing well. Jeremy Slater, who lives in the inn’s basement apartment with his young niece, Annabelle, is a valuable asset who helps with the inn’s day-to-day operations.
Abby, Georgia, and Jeremy are looking forward to Lonnie’s crew completing their work on four of the eight cottages that will be available for guests to rent. In recent months, Georgia began receiving unsettling emails at her “Cooking With Georgia” address, but when they grow darker in context and start arriving in her personal email account, she enlists the help of the bartender at the Bistro at Holiday Bay, who is a computer guru, to identify the sender. Meanwhile, Colt is trying to determine if the death of a local lobsterman, Lewis Keaton, was accidental or intentional.