This is a great beach read with a good mix of humor, mystery, romance, and family drama. Drue Campbell, our main heroine, reminds me of Stephanie Plum, but with decreased knack for getting into sticky situations.

Mary Kay Andrews does it again! She writes great characters with plenty of back-story and plot twists. She keeps your attention on every page. A great story of family and friends and their growing relationships. A great read with a mysterious twist.

This is one of those book that makes you feel great. I loved it. My first by this author and it is a stand alone book.
A perfect beach read with some mystery, whats not to love/?
Drue is at a crossroads in her life, her mother has died, her best days are behind her, what will she do, next she gets fired from her job so she takes a job from her father as a pesonal injury lawyer and moves to sunset beach and moves into the house she inherited from her dead mother. Upon arrival Drue notices her estranged father has re married for the third time to someone who was Drues boyfriend.
A case intrigues Drue and she begins her own investigative work to see what the truth is. Along the way she is given some old items thats belonged to her mother and these are old newspaper clipping from the 70s but something isnt quite right.... is her father connected to this case shes working on? As she begins to unravel things, she probably wishes she never looked at the case.
This book is certainly more a mystery than a beach road but its a great read no matter what.

Drue Campbell just lost her mother, her job, her boyfriend and her home. So when her estranged father, personal injury lawyer Brice Campbell, extends an olive branch with a job offer at the end of it, she has no option but to accept. Sunset Beach by Mary Kay Andrews is an enjoyable beach read, a mystery with enough humor and romance thrown in to keep it light and entertaining. Despite warnings from everyone she knows, Drue continues to dig into some old cases, cases into that no one wants her looking.

Classic Mary Kay Andrews. Fun/summer beach read. Or a read on your front porch or back deck. Believable characters. Well written. Good story line. Treat yourself!

Drue Campbell’s life is adrift. Out of a job and down on her luck, life doesn’t seem to be getting any better when her estranged father, Brice Campbell, a flamboyant personal injury attorney, shows up at her mother’s funeral after a twenty-year absence. Worse, he’s remarried – to Drue’s eighth grade frenemy, Wendy, now his office manager. And they’re offering her a job. Drue has broken up with her boyfriend, was fired from her job and has nothing holding her back.

Drue quickly gets caught up in a case of a young single mother who was murdered at her job. Before she knows it she has become embroiled in this case trying to find answers. Can she help find justice without putting herself at risk??

I really enjoyed this book and the character of Drue. I would love to have another book giving us more Drue!!

Mary Kay Andrews never disappoints. She writes flawed characters that are (mostly) completely redeemable. These are people that you grow to love throughout the story.

This was a great summer beach read packed with Mystery and an added splash of romance and family drama. Very entertaining!

Mary Kay Andrews never disappoints! This book has a little bit of everything- mystery, romance, humor, and twists! The perfect beach read!

There were mixed reviews on this book, but I really enjoyed it. I love how Mary Kay Andrews mixes family drama, mystery, suspense and romance. In this story Drue Campbell is at a crossroads. She has lost her mother, her boyfriend dumped her so she lost her home, has a serious sports injury so can no longer perform in her beloved sport and has been fired from the bar where she worked. When her estranged father shows up at her mother's funeral with a job offer and a place to live, she accepts although begrudgingly. When she finds out that he is married to her frenemy from highschool, she is shocked and does not make it easy for any of them. When she begins poking around in a case that her father settled for a measly 150,000.00, she finds things that might have been better left alone.

This story has two separate mysteries. The first is the death of the young mother, who is the daughter of their client and the second is a missing person who disappeared before Drue was even born. Why were there newspaper clippings about this incident in her grandparent's attic and why was the police file also hidden away up there?

There is a bit of a dual timeline, as the second mystery has us back in the past before Colleen disappeared. This part of the story is from the POV of both Drue's father and his best friend and investigator. There were a lot of red herrings in this story and boy was I surprised when we finally get the full story. The story about what happened to the young housekeeper at the exclusive resort is in the present. I loved Drue's character. She had been through so much in her life. She had an attitude that wouldn't quit, but was a very likeable character. She was also smart, persistent and had a moral compass to find out what had really happened. She was also impulsive, too open and sharing and did put herself in danger more than once. The secondary characters added much to the story. The mystery was quite complex and Drue had a knack of getting people to open up to her, often with the help of alcohol, to find out more than the police did. I really enjoyed this one and do not hesitate to recommend it to those who enjoy a good beach read/mystery/contemporary story.

I've been a Mary Kay Andrews fan for some time. She's not only charming in person, having met her a few times in Houston at Murder by the Book but I can always count on her books to usher in summer and provide a great break from reality. "Sunset Beach" was no exception though I have to note that it read very differently than some of her recent titles. This book was a shade darker dealing with murder, sexual harassment, drugs and blackmail. So while not a fluffy beach read, it was still very enjoyable. Andrews kept me guessing until the very last chapters as to who did what and why. I enjoyed Drue as a character and enjoyed watching her make peace with herself and relationships with her dad and stepmother. Andrews is gifted at bringing the beach to wherever her readers are. I was not disappointed and I look forward to next summer's read! I'm so grateful for receiving an advance copy to read and enjoy. Thank you!

The book was a little wordy for me but I enjoyed the book. I liked most of the characters and I thought that it was an easy read. It had a couple of little side plots but I think it really pulled it together for the most part. Easy read and wasn't confusing, I didn't think.

4 stars to this sweet summer read. Drue is fired from her waitress job and has to go move to Sunset Beach to work for her ambulance-chasing attorney father. The silver lining is that she will get a pretty amazing inheritance from her grandmother. But, UGH! she has to work with her frenemey from middle school who is now married to her dad. YIKES!

So while cleaning up the bungalow she inherited, Drue stumbles on some papers and a murder mystery unfolds. Could her dad's firm be connected somehow? Who can she trust? Drue becomes an investigator to reveal the truth.

I really enjoyed this and this is the best time of year for a read like this. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital copy to read for review. Light but mysterious, written in one of my favorite settings. It was the perfect escape and I highly recommend it!

I have always enjoyed Mary Kay Andrews books and this one was really good. The plot had a number of Interesting twists that kept you guessing and as usual the characters were sympathetic and well defined.

You can feel the sand between your toes and begin craving a nice cold glass of wine as you dip into this lively mystery!

Traveling With T’s Thoughts:

I haven’t read all of Mary Kay Andrews books- but when I read one, I always think “Why have I not caught up completely with her backlist?”

First, she has great covers, Covers that are basically like art. Second, the characters are real. So darn real. Third… well maybe I just have a first and second 🙂

What I liked:

The cover. If I could crawl into a cover- I think this cover would be the one I would crawl into.

The mystery. Usually there is a mystery-ish aspect to the MKA books I have read- trying to piece together why the book is unfolding the way it does. But this book had 2 mysteries for the price of 1- and both were good!!!! I liked that one was a true cold case and the other had a cold case feel!

Family drama. Sometimes you just need a little family drama to read about 🙂



Bottom line: Totally readable. Totally enjoyable. I predict you won’t be able to walk too many steps down the beach without seeing someone reading this book!

Mary Kay Andrews is the queen of beach reads, and this book was no exception. However, this one had an element of mystery and suspense to it, which I loved! I really enjoyed the main character, Drue, and I enjoyed seeing the development and relationship formed with the other characters in the story! It was surely a page turner as I couldn’t wait to find out what had happened with the cold case mystery!

Mary Kay Andrews' books always entertain me. This book was a great murder mystery and a back-and-forth past and present story. There is the typical conflict with characters and a main character that keeps you guessing what she'll do next.

Between the present-day and 40-year-old murders to be solved, you will meet a myriad of characters. You'll be in for an adventure and will find yourself flipping quickly through the pages to see what Drue will get into next.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Mary Kay Andrews sets up Sunset Beach with the main character with plenty of issues and conflicts, using a backdrop of the beach life, an inherited (fixer-upper) beach bungalow, a dash of accidental love (that started off on the wrong foot), and a generous helping of nostalgia to ease the mood.

The defining personality trait of Drue Campbell is her persistence (read: stubbornness). She doesn’t just happen to get sucked into two mysteries, she sticks her nose in them, which makes for good fiction. Normally what people with Drue’s mental load do in real life is keeping their heads down to just get through the days, especially with the financial constraints Drue’s facing. She’s also dealing with an injury that prevents her from enjoying the sport that is a huge part of her life, breaking up with her long-time boyfriend, and not to mention her mother’s death. The cherry on top is her strained relationships with her estranged father and her high school ex-best friend, who ended up marrying each other.

Considering the mystery genre is rife with some real high performers, I cannot in good conscience rate Sunset Beach with 5 or 4 stars. It’ll be a solid 3.5 from me. Mary Kay Andrews delivers an entertaining piece that’s suitable as a leisurely read. This book is not for fans of hard-core mystery fiction. I’d say it’s more tailored for chick-lit fans who wants something more than romance taking the centre stage. I also have the feeling that it could be turned into a decent movie.

Sunset Beach is a cozy and an enjoyable read with plenty of clue-hunting and a lot of rule-breaking to get answers.

This story follows Drue Campbell, whose estranged father comes back into her life after her mother dies. Drue accepts a job from her father and moves into a house of his, a true fixer upper. Along the way, Drue begins working a suspicious case that may involve her father's law firm. This was an easy mystery read.

A fun beach read with a little mystery thrown in.  Not just fluff and romance in this one.  Mary Kay Andrews does not disappoint!