Editor’s note: This review and roundup appears in several Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia newspapers and magazines, including at https://cullmantimes.com/2025/03/11/review-a-sip-of-spring-fiction-with-a-bit-of-history-for-flavor/

A sip of spring fiction, with a bit of history for flavor

By Tom Mayer

On the cusp of the 80th anniversary of the atrocities ending with World War II’s VJ Day, comes an important reminder in the form of cinematic storytelling from the pen of best-selling author Robert Dugoni, assisted by fellow academic researchers Chris Crabtree and Jeff Langholz.

Five hundred-page novels that contain more than a hundred pages of afterword and notes aren’t typical fare for the type of thrillers Dugoni writes; and if cinema is used as an adjective for such tomes it generally implies “best documentary” rather than “best picture.” But this fictionalized re-telling of the end of the war is anything but documental, especially with its final 150 pages moving full steam ahead, filled with submarines, warships and Clancyesque code breaking.

“Hold Strong” (Lake Union) tells the story of Sam Carlson and Sarah Haber, young sweethearts from Eagle Grove, Minnesota. It’s the end of the Great Depression and looking for a way out of his and his parents’ misfortunes — the family farm has been repossessed — Sam joins the war effort. Finding that the Army life suits him, he rises through the ranks. In 1942, he’s taken prisoner by the Japanese and survives the worst that that experience can offer, including the Bataan Death March in the Philippines and captivity in the hold of a Japanese “hell ship,” the Arisan Maru.

Through this, Sarah, and Sam’s family, receive no word about him, and the Army records him as missing in action. Though the couple made a promise to each other but never cemented an engagement before he left, Sarah especially is left in limbo, loving a man who she knows could be dead.

But Sarah’s strong, independent character is coupled with a brilliant mathematical mind, and she’s recruited out of college by the Navy to become a code breaker in the service of the WAVES — Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service — helping to turn the tide of the war, and possibly even unknowingly, Sam’s fate. The upshot is that no one, not even their families, can know what the women are doing, even to the point of telling others if asked that they are nothing more than secretaries in the service of Uncle Sam.

The story of Sam and Sarah is just that, a story, but Dugoni and company get it right, opening new and little-known chapters on the hells of that war — and the critical roles of female recruits — with startling and stark reality.

“Hold Strong” works well as a novel, and its secondary characters, such as Father Tom with his unflappable faith and Grace Moretti with her unbounded optimism, are extraordinarily well-developed. But this is one book bound for the big screen, and with its historic foundation underpinning a captivating wartime love story, one that is sure to become the sleeper read of the year.

Another novel of potential sleeper status comes to us as a dream in the charming coming-of-age “The Rainfall Market” (Ace). Written by a young South Korean novelist, You Yeong-Gwang (whose own dream as a young author is this story), and translated by Slin Jung, this magical novel tells the story of the impoverished teenager Serin and an abandoned house on the outskirts of Rainbow Town.

The legend says that if you send an essay explaining your misfortunes to that address, you could receive a ticket in return, and one that not only allows entrance to the Market beyond the house’s front door, but the offer to swap your life for another.

The odds are long but Serin sends off her letter and gets in return a ticket and an invitation to visit the Market for the duration of the rainy season — those who overstay the welcome are destined to never leave — with the total of its enchantments, including a magical cat companion named Issha.

Travels and travails follow Serin and Issha as they are plagued by Dokkaebi — goblin-like creatures taken from the pages of Korean folklore — who run the individual shops in the market, each offering a “happier story in our stock.”

With help from Issha and others that she befriends, Serin traverses the market’s allegorical landmines, comparing one life’s outcome with another until she comes to the end of her visit in this predictable but rewarding fairytale.

Other notable titles out this spring and worth the price of admission — no essay required — range from the fantastical to the feral with a number of big-hitting authors submitting some of their best work, including sequels:

“Witchcraft for Wayward Girls” (Berkley) by Grady Hendrix: 15-year-old Fern arrives alone and scared and pregnant at the Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida — as are all the young woman and girls living at the home. Life is strictly regulated under the tyrannical control of the adults until Fern is gifted a book about witchcraft — and the power it contains to both create and destroy.

“The Ends of Things” (Blackstone) by Sandra Chwialkowska: A romantic lovers’ paradise is anything but idyllic for Laura Phillips and her boyfriend as shea becomes involved in the disappearance of the lone traveler befriended on the beach. An exotic getaway soon itself gets away from Laura as garnished cocktails and sumptuous suites turn into a murder investigation — and a fight for her innocence.

“Somewhere Toward Freedom” (Simon & Schuster) by Bennett Parten: Parten, a Georgia-native university professor with an expertise in the Civil War period, shines with storytelling as his reporting illuminates new, and unconventional, light on one of the most well-documented and well-known war episodes in our nation’s history — Sherman’s march to the sea. Subtitled “Sherman’s March and Story of America’s Largest Emancipation,” Parten re-tills well-trodden ground, telling the story of the thousands of enslaved people who followed Sherman and his army, turning a march of destruction into the launch of liberation in this meticulously researched book.

“Cupid on the Loose” (Blackstone) by John J. Jacobson: This timely novel that slipped into best-selling list early in February is nonetheless a timely tale for the ages, and especially for those who love a love story in the vein of Nicholas Sparks, and the romantic mayhem of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” — an author who incidentally plays a prominent role of his own in this fun read. Centered on a “kindred kind of romance” that needs a bit of tender to set it ablaze, enter a meddling grandmother whose intentions are as well-conceived as they are misguided.

“Destiny’s Way” (Berkley) by Jack Campbell: In this sequel to Campbell’s “In Our Stars,” the time traveling part-human, part-alien-DNA Selene Genji is thrust 30 years into the past, before the Universal Way destroyed the world, in an attempt to save Earth — excedpt those alive who want her dead after being declared a traitor by the Earth Guard. Assisted by at least one friend from the first part of the “Doomed Earth Duology,” Selene must find a way to save a prejudicial mankind that wants this independent and strong woman dead.

“The Secrets of Flowers” (Blackstone) by Sally Page: A story floating from the depths of the Titanic — and we never get tired of those — Page crafts a unique, heart-healing tale of Emma, who is bereft following her husband’s death. Told through the language of flowers, Emma discovers the lost story of a girl from the ship, one told in the arrangements of the flowers on board during the maiden, and final, voyage, that might just blossom into the healing of her own grief.

“The Memory Ward” (Blackstone) by Jon Bassoff: A seemingly Elysian small town is the scene of bizarre oddities, and postal worker Hank Davies isn’t the first to notice — he comes to realize he’s delivering mail filled with blank pages — but he’s the one whose willing to cry foul. A secreted story discovered beneath the walls of Hank’s bedroom touches off pages of alternate reality as Bassoff delivers a tale of trauma and altered identity, and one questioning the concept of humanity itself.

“American Fever” (Arcade) by Dur e Aziz Amna: This engaging and humorous novel centers on a Pakistani exchange student in rural Oregon who finds herself between worlds — and entrenched in the navigation of first love, racism, Islamophobia and homesickness. When she finds herself quarantined after a diagnosis of tuberculosis, her world shrinks further as themes of religion, family and national identity take on increasingly larger proportions.

“Protecting Jess” (Arcade Crimewise) by Karna Small Bodman: A White House economist and rising star, Jessica Tanner, has both brains and beauty. Sent to Brazil to speak at an international conference on behalf of her boss, a planned exotic dream assignment descends into a dangerous and foreboding nightmare.

“Don’t Tell Me How to Die” (Blackstone) by Marshall Karp: Marshall Karp, of NYPD Red series (aka, co-conspirator of James Patterson) fame, offers a taut, sharp and on-target psychological thriller in “Don’t Tell Me How To Die” (Blackstone). Told in parts, past and present, Karp crafts a evolving storyline centered on 43-year-old Maggie, a woman who is not only diagnosed with the same deadly disease that claimed her mother but vows to not recreate the adolescent hell she endured because of the passing. Seeing firsthand her dying mother’s warning that, once she died, women would flock to 17-year-old Maggie and her sister’s father “like stray cats to an overturned milk truck” and that it would be up to girls to protect him. Which they do, admirably — until one slips through their gatekeeping. … Determined that the same thing won’t happen to her own family, Maggie devises a plan to find a perfect match as wife and mother … before she dies. If this were all to the plot, the storyline would be worth an afternoon, but in succeeding parts of the novel, Karp continuously turns everything upside down, projecting surprise after surprise in a trope-laden, over-blown style that works perfectly for a main course instead of the appetizer it would have been coming from a lesser pen. Karp is a veteran in keeping the cinematic action going and the shocks coming — both of which are abundantly on display in his latest.

“Cold Iron Task” (Berkley) by James J. Butcher: In this Book 3 of 3 in Butcher’s “The Unorthodox Chronicles,” Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby — one of the most notable names in literary history — has solved at least one case, but he’s still a beginner in Boston’s Department of Unorthodox Affairs. As he joins an unlikely partner in the heist of of an otherworldly vault, Grimsby touches off past and closely guarded secrets, freeing demons and monsters, Usual and Unorthodox, that could be his demise in this series finisher.

“The Gate of the Feral Gods” (Ace Hardcovers) by Matt Dinniman (Dungeon Crawler Carl series): Welcome, Crawler, to the fifth floor of the dungeon in Book 4 of Dinniman’s quest series, and one filled with warrior gnomes, malfunctioning machines and a deadly, haunted crypt. On the eve of utter failure, Carl and his team find they must rely on the untrustworthy crawlers trapped in the bubble with them.

“The Summer Guests” (Thomas & Mercer) by Tess Gerritsen: In Book 2 of The Martini Club, retired covert agent Maggie Bird has “retired” to the seaside. In Purity, life is quiet, but it’s not without murder as a friendly neighbor of Maggies becomes embroiled in double homicide charges. It’s up to the Martini Club, a circle of ex-CIA friends book club, to find the truth behind the secrets that portend more murder on the horizon.

“Gothictown” (Kensington) by Emily Carpenter: What if you could purchase a Victorian home for $100 in a small Georgia town eager to spur its pandemic-riddled economy? So begins this story of Billie Hope’s dream of fleeing cramped and crimped New York City with her husband and daughter. Dreams, as they often do in the offerings from Carpenter — a Birmingham, Alabama, native now living in Georgia — descend from opportunities to devilish bargains, and “Gothictown” is part and parcel of the oeuvre. More than genteel charms lurks beneath the facade of Southern hospitality in this town. View a free 66-page teaser of the novel (“Gothictown: A Sneak Peek”) at online booksellers.

“Home Is Where the Bodies Are” (Blackstone) by Jeneva Rose: Questions and secrets arise when three estranged siblings begin to sort their mother’s estate — and discover a VHS recording of their blood-soaked father involved in a death of which none of them have any recollection. Revive the past or leave it buried with their mother? That becomes the question … with no easy, or safe, answers.

Reach Tom Mayer at tmayer@cullmantimes.com.

When a teenage girl on vacation in rural Maine goes missing, the police follow some leads while a group of CIA operatives who have retired there and formed "The Martini Club" also take up the case. The lake is dredged, and the girl is not found, but an old skeleton is. The mystery of the drowned woman and the missing girl take the friends and the lead cop in directions they didn't see coming.

I really liked the first book in this series (this is the second one). I thought it was different and well written. I liked the Maine, retired lifestyle setting and their interactions with local law enforcement. This is a mystery series, so it had some action and some character development. The problem is this one didn't have much of that. All of this book is set in Maine, and the characters are hardly developed at all. I liked this book as the popcorn, light thriller that it is, but it is not much more. I hope the next book brings in either some new characters or a new slant or leaves Maine.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.

When the Granddaughter of a prominent summer guest goes missing and a decades old cold case coming roaring back to the present, the Martini Club convenes to help acting Police Chief Jo Thibodeau solve both cases.

This book was definitely a slow burn at first. I enjoyed the action packed first chapter but then it felt a little like someone slammed on the breaks and the action slowed to a crawl for the rest of the first half. That being said, once the cold case was introduced the pace really picked up and I couldn't put it down from that point to the end. This book in particular did an awesome job of filling out a whole cast of summer guest characters as well as a whole cast of townspeople without being at all confusing which was great. Many of the characters are endearing; I love Maggie & Declan especially.

As a long-time fan of this author, I'm still partial to Rizzoli & Isles but the Martini Club is starting to develop as it's own cool thing and I'm definitely looking forward to more from Jo & the club! :)

A Captivating and Chilling Story

SUMMARY
Retired CIA agent Maggie Bird and four other retired agency friends gather monthly for a boozey book club meeting. They call it The Martini Club. Here, they also discuss the happenings in the community of Purity, Maine. With nothing else to do with their free time, they invite themselves to help the local police solve crimes. The acting police chief Jo Thibodeau sometimes tolerates their presence.

But now a teenage girl, Zoe, has disappeared without a trace. She is a summer guest staying with one of the wealthy families who have owned a house on the lake for many years. Zoe, an excellent swimmer, had spent the morning on the lake, where she met a new friend who was a local. The girl invited Zoe over to see the animals, on her grandfather's farm. No one has seen Zoe since she left to go to the farm. Coincidently, the farm where Zoe disappeared was next to Maggie Bird’s farm. So, of course, the Martini Club wants to be involved, particularly when Maggie’s elderly neighbor becomes a suspect. But when a body is found in the lake, things become much more complicated.

REVIEW
The Summer Guests is Tess Gerritsen's riveting second book in the Martini Club Series. The story is captivating and chilling, and the setting in a small, wooded lakeside Maine village is dark and atmospheric.

Gerritsen’s writing is action-packed, with enough twists and turns to spin your head. Her army of characters is intriguing, and buried secrets drive the narrative. I liked how Gerritsen cleverly linked characters in The Spy Coast to characters in The Summer Guest. It is fun to watch the Martini Club skills and intelligence at work on the case, and I love seeing the police chief interacting with the Martini Club

Thanks to Netgalley for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Publisher Thomas & Mercer
Published March 18, 2025
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com

The Summer Guests is another thrilling installment in the Martini Club series, and I enjoyed every twist and turn! Tess Gerritsen masterfully weaves together mystery, suspense, and small-town drama, keeping me hooked from start to finish.
The story follows retired spy Maggie Bird and her ex-CIA friends as they investigate the disappearance of a teenager in Purity, Maine. What starts as a missing persons case soon unravels into something much bigger, with secrets from the past coming to light. The alternating perspectives of Maggie, Jo, and Susan add depth, and the pacing is excellent.
I loved the mix of action, intelligence, and camaraderie among the Martini Club members. The contrast between the wealthy summer visitors and the year-round locals made the setting even more compelling. If you enjoy smart mysteries with well-developed characters, this book—and the entire series—is a must-read!
Very grateful to the publisher for my copy through NetGalley, opinions are my own

I loved The Spy Coast back in 2024 and this sequel lives up to the first book! Funny, intelligent retired CIA agents, a missing girl, mayhem, family drama all make this book a winner:)

Maggie and friends, The Martini Club, have put their spy lives behind them and are happily retired in Purity, Maine. But when a friend of Maggie's is accused of kidnapping (and possible other crimes), Maggie and friends can't resist the urge to investigate. I love these people! They have such joy in investigating. I love the town's beleaguered police chief, Jo Thibodeau, who has to handle these out of the ordinary crimes and deal with a bunch of meddling not-kids. This whole situation is one of my favorite not-genres: old people not being old. The series has the same kick that Ms. Gerritsen's Rizzoli and Isles series offered, and I will look forward to each addition as I did to the former series.

Thanks to its twisty plot full of bombshells and bluffs, this sequel kept me on my toes. No matter how shocking the story became, the characters felt authentic and were easy to root for.

Would I recommend?... Yes! If you're after a mystery that bridges the gap between cosy crime and cinematic thrillers.

Read for:
- highly-skilled former spies looking into a highly suspicious family
- compelling, multi-layered mystery
- red herrings and shocking reveals
- themes of friendship
- climactic ending

CIA agents who retire move to small towns in Maine. Maggie and the Martini Club, all ex CIA, discuss books and get involved in local police cases. The police do not always appreciate their meddling. A young girl who is in Maine for the first time goes missing. Is she really missing or did she run away? The Martini Club decides to investigate.
This story is about wealth and the locals. Can the wealthy get away with things that the locals cannot? In what has this girl's family been involved. Can the ex CIA agents find the girl before the police and save her. It is a race against time. It is a great read about wealth and privilege. What will people do to protect family? I recommend reading this book.

Thank you to #NetGalley, #TessGerritsen, and #Thomas&Mercer for a copy of this book.
#TheSummerGuests

The Summer Guests is part 2 of the Martini Club series and another great book by Tess Gerritsen. Having recently read the The Spy Coast, I couldn't wait to delve in to the next installment.

I really enjoyed the characters in this book, the Martini club members of course are my favourites. They are a persistent, intelligent group of ex CIA operatives who spend their retirement solving crimes, much to the annoyance of the local Police Chief.

The Conovers were really unlikeable for me, other than Susan and Zoe. Susan and Zoe came across as warm, kind people whereas the rest of the Conovers were quite upright, unkind and aloof.

The descriptions of Maine and Maiden Pond made it sound like a beautiful location although it was marred by the history of it's summer guests.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to see what the Martini club get up to next!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Tess Gerritsen’s latest thriller featuring retired CIA operatives in a picturesque Maine town doesn’t disappoint. A teen goes missing, mysteries from the past and present need to be solved, and the retirees add their spy training to the local police chief’s skills to figure it all out. 

The mysteries are compelling, but the relationships in the Martini Club series (this is book 2) make the narrative sing. How the former spies, the skeptical police chief, the year-round locals, the tourists, the farmers, and the wealthy visitors all fit into the little town feels real and is very well-written. Gerritsen also portrays these retirees as people with complex histories who still have a lot to offer.

I had read the first book in the series, The Spy Coast (also excellent), but think a reader could start with Summer Guests — though you will likely want to go back to Spy Coast to spend more time with these characters!

In all, a very enjoyable read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

The Summer Guests is the second book in Tess Gerritsen’s Martini Club series, and I found it just as engaging as The Spy Coast. While the first book focused on the characters’ past lives in espionage, this installment shifts gears, putting the ex-CIA members in more of a supporting role. Instead, the story introduces a new group of characters and unfolds as a more traditional mystery.

When Susan’s daughter goes missing, the interest here is not only the who but the why. I enjoyed how this was a bit of a slow burn, yet the pace was sustained throughout.

I would like to thank NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Another great story about the Martini Club and their crazy adventures. I feel in love with Maggie and her crew of unlikely (and yet totally likely) crime solvers in the first book and was absolutely thrilled when I found out they would be back for me. This was the gripping story of a family with more secrets and darkness than you can even imagine. A true page turner that will leave you hanging on to every word. The twists and turns keep coming weaving a true who done it for the modern times.

I've been a fan of Tess Gerritsen's for a long time now. Her suspense thrillers are always fast-paced and action-packed. The Summer Guests follows this same formula and does not disappoint. Usually, I'm bummed out about taking up a new read that's not the first in a series. I like to meet the characters at inception, but sometimes, you pick up a book, and it refuses to let you go. The fact that it's number 2 in a series isn't discouraging enough to pry the book from your cold, dead hands.

The Summer Guests begins with an unassuming blended family traveling to a lake house set in Purity, Maine. As Ethan, Susan, and Zoe descend upon Moonview, they have no idea how their lives will change in only a few days. The disappearance of Zoe jumpstarts the action and eventually leads to the discovery of another missing woman from decades earlier.

Enter Maggie. Maggie and her band of retired intelligence agents catch wind of Zoe's disappearance and decide their expertise is needed. Maggie and the Martini Club are even more invested in this mystery once Maggie's neighbor is arrested under suspicion of kidnapping Zoe. Determined to prove her neighbor innocent, Maggie, and her club, embark upon a mystery that proves the past won't be silenced forever.

The Summer Guests is engaging and captivating from the first page. I began this novel thinking I'd read a chapter or two and trudge along as I've done the last few years while finishing up school. Only, Tess Gerritsen had another idea that I could not resist.

The Summer Guests is compiled of the varying perspectives of the major players. We get to follow Jo, Purity's acting chief of Police, Susan, the mother of the missing girl, and Maggie. Maggie is the reason the Martini Club has taken up residence in the small town of Purity, Maine. She and her team of retirees prove that it's not always easy to retire from certain professions.

What I liked most about this novel is the pace. I had limited time between terms to read and review for fun. Luckily, The Summer Guests found me and I could not resist. This novel takes you from one mystery to another, one suspect to another, and one perspective to another. Gerritsen manages to make a 2nd installment in a series feel familiar. There was enough character development and recapping that it was easy to become attached to the leading players.

Essentially, The Summer Guests was a fun, engaging, and fast read. I don't have any gripes with Gerritsen's work because she's that good. If you're looking for something to read that's instantly captivating I recommend The Summer Guests.

Copy provided by Thomas & Mercer via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

A group of neighbours in the small town of Purity Maine have a secret background they have kept hidden from the rest of the town. They call themselves the Martini Club and enjoy drinks and chatting. One night a teenage girl visiting a cottage on the lake disappears and strange things begin to happen. The group knows they must pool their knowledge and help find her but have they figured it out or is it to do with their past lives.
The story has connections to The Spy Coast another of Tess's books but is also a stand alone. The story keeps you turning pages and trying to solve the mystery. Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas and Mercer Publishers for the chance to read this enjoyable book.

So very glad this series continues! Delighted to include this title in the March edition of Novel Encounters, my column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for the Books section of Zoomer, Canada’s national lifestyle and culture magazine. (see column and mini-review at link)

The Summer Guests, the next entry in Tess Gerritsen's new series, focuses on another part of Purity, Maine. The story revolves around frequent summer visitors to a nearby lake and Maggie gets pulled in when a young girl goes missing. There were two storylines in this, one investigating a past murder and the other, a missing girl. Gerritsen built the tension, dropping clues, and propelling the story along as the Martini Club assists the local chief. It is a great mystery read and highly recommend to those who love her Rizzoli and Isles series.

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC.

Summer has come to Purity, Maine, and so have the usual summer guests. A 14-year old girl vanishes from Maiden Pond and Maggie's neighbor Luther is the main suspect. The Martini Club wants to help acting chief Jo Thibodeau, even though she's reluctant to accept help from a bunch of pensioners. Suddenly the investigation spirals into unforeseen directions and may be connected to something that happened in 1972.

This was just as athmospheric as the first book The Spy Coast. The Martini Club emits some cozy vibes, but the story is definitely not cozy. I like all the regular characters of the series. The case is complicated and branches out in many unexpected directions as the Martini club unearths some deeply buried secrets. I really hope this series will continue.

Small town secrets and murder! When a teen goes missing, Maggie Bird can’t help but get involved to help exonerate her neighbor who is the main suspect. And when the remains of another young woman is found at the bottom of the local pond, Maggie and her boozy bookclub friends, who also happen to be ex CIA agents, jump in to help police chief, Jo Thibadeau, solve the crime.

This is book 2 in the Martini Club duo and it can be read as a stand alone but it is preferable if you can read The Spy Coast first to get all the background on these lovable geriatric characters. I find Tess Gerritson’s books to always be entertaining and suspenseful. She has the ability to capture my attention and keep me reading late into the night!

Thank you Netgalley, Thomas & Mercer, and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be available for purchase on March 18, 2025

It's summer in Purity, Maine and the summer guests have arrived. For years It's been this way. Mansions on one side of Maiden Pond and year round residents on the other. There have been clashes and resentments.

The Conover family is there for a memorial. Coming for the first time are Susan, who is newly married to Ethan, and teenage daughter Zoe. When Zoe goes missing acting police chief Jo is pressured to make an arrest along with finding the girl. Then bones are found in the pond. The Martini Club is compelled to help Jo and the missing girl.

I loved this book. It's a great series. The members of the Martini Club and Jo are all great characters. So are Maggie's neighbors. There is humor where the Martini Club is concerned. This creates a cozy feel, but don't let that fool you. Maggie and friends are not people to mess with.

Despite dark things happening in the past and present it's a fun read. Combine that with sympathy for the characters that deserve it and you have a spy/crime thriller that is a lighter read. It stands apart for me from other crime thrillers.

The descriptions of Purity make me want to visit. I can't wait to read about the Martini Club's next adventure!