The familiar Cape Cod setting works its spell, and the cranky, colorful New England characters work their way through a deftly amusing and baffling story of plot and counterplot.

She had come every summer for twenty-nine years to stay at what used to be Mrs. Mercer's boarding house but was now Ye Olde Whale Inn. She knew all about Quisset, and Quisset thought it knew all about her. So when Miss Olive Beadle arrived for her thirtieth season, there was nothing to hint at disaster.

The murder at Ye Olde Whale Inn hung on a curious series of chance events: if Ann Joyce and Mrs. Hingham hadn't both been stage-struck; if departing ministers hadn't passed out group photos to the congregation; if Cousin Jenny hadn't found the stuffed tomato…and if a sprained ankle and a load of overdue clams hadn't put Asey Mayo on the scene, matters would have been very different....

Back by popular demand for the first time in years, The Countryman Press is pleased to reissue four Cape Cod mysteries featuring the witty and salty Asey Mayo, "A local handyman who knows something about police work and everything about everybody's business" (Marilyn Stasio, Mystery Alley). Set within the brooding landscape of Cape Code, these classic who-dunits are sure to please dedicated Phoebe Atwood Taylor fans and newcomer mystery buffs alike.

First, a best-selling author turns up dead. Then Asey's best friend becomes the chief suspect and Asey knows he has to do something. There's only one clue: a sardine can. And only one weekend to clear it all up....

Back by popular demand for the first time in years, The Countryman Press is pleased to reissue four Cape Cod mysteries featuring the witty and salty Asey Mayo, "A local handyman who knows something about police work and everything about everybody's business" (Marilyn Stasio, Mystery Alley). Set within the brooding landscape of Cape Code, these classic who-dunits are sure to please dedicated Phoebe Atwood Taylor fans and newcomer mystery buffs alike.

Asey Mayo fans will be delighted to find the codfish Sherlock not once, but thrice perplexed in these incomparable novellas: Murder Rides the Gale, The Stars Spell Death, and The Third Murderer....

There's been no shortage of trouble on Cape Cod that March. A house party of men and women has been snowed in—and cut off from the world outside. The host is murdered. Poisoning, the doctor says; probably arsenic. But almost everyone is found to have arsenic among his or her possessions.

Asey Mayo fans, and newcomers, will have much to discover in Death Lights a Candle, with its special New England flavor and Cape Cod characters. As Marilyn Stasio, columnist for the New York Times writes, "Taylor's droll period whodunits are a special treat, thanks to the Codfish Sherlock, Asey Mayo, a salty Cape codger who entertains summer visitors by solving picturesque crimes."...