Review: The Newcomer by Mary Kay Andrews

The Newcomer

by Mary Kay Andrews 

Publisher: St Martin's Press

Pages: 448

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  In trouble and on the run...

After she discovers her sister Tanya dead on the floor of her fashionable New York City townhouse, Letty Carnahan is certain she knows who did it: Tanya’s ex; sleazy real estate entrepreneur Evan Wingfield. Even in the grip of grief and panic Letty heeds her late sister’s warnings: “If anything bad happens to me—it’s Evan. Promise me you’ll take Maya and run. Promise me.”

With a trunkful of emotional baggage...

So Letty grabs her sister’s Mercedes and hits the road with her wailing four-year-old niece Maya. Letty is determined to out-run Evan and the law, but run to where? Tanya, a woman with a past shrouded in secrets, left behind a “go-bag” of cash and a big honking diamond ring—but only one clue: a faded magazine story about a sleepy mom-and-pop motel in a Florida beach town with the improbable name of Treasure Island. She sheds her old life and checks into an uncertain future at The Murmuring Surf Motel.

The No Vacancy sign is flashing & the sharks are circling...

And that’s the good news. Because The Surf, as the regulars call it, is the winter home of a close-knit flock of retirees and snowbirds who regard this odd-duck newcomer with suspicion and down-right hostility. As Letty settles into the motel’s former storage room, she tries to heal Maya’s heartache and unravel the key to her sister’s shady past, all while dodging the attention of the owner’s dangerously attractive son Joe, who just happens to be a local police detective. Can Letty find romance as well as a room at the inn—or will Joe betray her secrets and put her behind bars? With danger closing in, it’s a race to find the truth and right the wrongs of the past.

Kritters Thoughts:  With a complicated synopsis, the basics are a young woman who's younger sister has been murdered escapes NYC with her niece and hopes to run from her problems and start a new life away from it all, but in Florida she continues to find out clues about her sister and eventually it all implodes.  

I am thankful for Mary Kay Andrews books I don't read synopsis, because had I read this one, I am not sure if I would have so quickly dove into the book.  I trust Andrews with my reading time and so far she hasn't disappointed!

Letty was the sweetest character with the purest of intentions to give her niece the childhood that she only wished she could have had herself or that her sister could have provided.  Her niece, Maya was was just the sweetest addition of humor throughout the book as she interacted with all the occupants at the hotel and as she was adjusting to a new normal without her mother.  

I loved the mix of a mystery with a women's fiction with strong women at the center of the story.  Without spoiling all the things, I loved the last bit of the book and how the author let the conclusion happen, it was a bit predictable, but still satisfying in the end.  

Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Ebook 2021 Challenge: 50 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from St Martin's Press.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.