Sealed Off: 03/13/24

Sealed Off by Barbara Ross and Dara Rosenberg (Narrator) (2019) is the eighth book in the Main Clambake mystery series. Another season is wrapping up at the Snowden Family Clambake with the leaf peepers also wanting a clambake. Julia's elderly cousin from Boston is also visiting to see the Snowden family home before the major renovation is begun. Unfortunately there's been another murder on the island

The murder comes after everyone on the island witnessed a fight between the victim and the brother of Julia's boyfriend. Given that he was a convicted for a robbery and shooting, it's easy to believe he's the murderer. Julia's boyfriend believes he isn't and pressures her to prove his innocence.

Besides the murder mystery, there's another historic mystery. This time it's in the form of recently discovered room in the Snowden house. It appears to have been the bedroom of the last nanny to work for the family. The room was left untouched with clothing, personal items, and a handwritten diary.

The diary mostly serves as filler. It's an account of a disastrous summer that ends in sexual assault. Julia and the others who have listened to a reading of the diary are left wondering what happened to her. Did she commit suicide? Was she murdered? Did she escape the island? Answers are found, thankfully, with some local knowledge sleuthing.

The account in the diary leads finally to a present day mystery, found via a second diary, this one written recently with ballpoint pen. But there are two big questions: how did she get into the sealed up room and where did the ballpoint pen come from? Of course neither of these questions are addressed as her mystery comes so late in the book that it's basically there to be an excuse for the climax.

The basic mystery is fairly tight but there's just so much extra stuff in this relatively short book (246 pages or six hours and 23 minutes). The diary stuff ends up taking up a third to a half of the overall time of this book, that should have been spent with the actual bad guys, making their part in the crime seem more plausible.

Three stars

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