AJ Alanson Author

Come hell or high water—both occurring only weeks before as a hurricane crawled up the coast of Maine—June Faust has already resolved to get to the bottom of the mysterious boat pushed up in her cove by the storm when she agrees to board a witness for Detective Bonnet. Seems this stranger walked right into Moorewicks Bay PD—on four legs—and turned himself in. With no ID and taking the 5th, his unrelenting stares plead for justice while his nose leads investigators to two crime scenes: one deep in the woods and all‑too‑fresh, and the other a century old and under water.

Meanwhile, discoveries at The Admiral Inn over the last ten months have brought out hordes of looky‑loos and treasure hunters, but nothing compares to the siren song of a sunken ship. Divers identify the wreck as The Myrtle, a long‑lost‑at‑sea local fishing boat, but a cargo of French wine plus bullets lodged in the cabin’s walls don’t add up. Something’s fishy, and June suspects the rotting boat in her cove is about to make even bigger waves above the water. While news of a shipwreck fills her inn and restaurant to capacity, she can’t deny the dogged stares of those soft, brown eyes seemingly desperate to tell her…something.

Holding back curiosity seekers and the press, June needs to speak for her furry, silent witness before his story grows too cold to follow. When he catches the scent, June will have to chase him into the woods, through poison ivy, over streams, up valleys, to the foot of a tree with an unidentified body. Impressed by the dog’s excellent tracking skills, June decides to hire him. Knowing the family of such a highly trained pet will soon be found, she needs to move fast before she loses her best investigator. Not only does she need him to tell his story—and what he knows about the body in the woods—but she also hopes he’ll help her hunt down the fate of The Myrtle.