Mermaid Blues

A mermaid. A shipwreck. And a murder. It's our maritime heritage. The annual Yankee Old Home Days festival in Libertyport, Massachusetts, has hit rough seas. The new preacher in town is firing up his flock to protest a saucy sculpture. A booze cruise goes overboard. And a fisherman's son dies violently in his apartment above the Thirsty Lobster bar. Singer-songwriter Baxter McLean (star of the first Libertyport mystery, "Mirror Ball Man") will have to take a break from recording his comeback album to catch a killer. The second Libertyport Mystery from author Joel Brown returns to the picturesque port city on the North Shore of Massachusetts, where townies, artists and yuppies mingle uneasily and the tourists never stop coming.