Blown Away: A Kite Shop Mystery
By Clover Take
Berkley
February 7, 2017

Review by Cynthia Chow

Despite the dire warnings of her protective parents, Emmy Adler is thrilled for the Grand Opening her own kite shop in Rock Point, Oregon. Combining her art schooling and store management experience, Emmy is fulfilling her dream of owning a store of customized, hand crafted kites designed for a more artistic crowd. The first cloud over her dream appears when Emmy discovers a body washed up on the beach, one later identified as being Miles Logan, a local celebrity chef and the ex-boyfriend of her best friend and new roommate, Avery Cook. When police find a note in Miles’s calendar indicating a meeting with Avery at the time he was murdered, not to mention Avery’s own discovery of the murder weapon, Sheriff Nick Koppen appears to have little choice but to suspect her. Small-town gossip had already condemned Avery, who resorts to the accusations by surrendering and retreating to her bed.

Knowing that Avery would never commit such an act, and unable to trust that justice will take care of itself, Emmy throws herself into an investigation to learn who stabbed Tidal Basin’s chef to death. Another ex-girlfriend, territorial mushroom hunters, and conflicts at his restaurant provide Emmy with alternate avenues of investigation. Stella Hart, a retired schoolteacher and Miles’s former coworker at Tidal Basin, also proves to be a talented painter ally both in detecting and in Emmy’s Strings Attached kite store. Stella has her own secrets though, and with the owner of the only other kite shop in Rock Point often wavering between supportiveness and wariness, Emmy impulsively follows her instincts to track down a killer.

This first in a series explores the unique coastal and forest setting, as well as the insular Rock Point lifestyle. Just as integral to the plot is Emmy’s relationship with her parents, vegan hippies who continue to hover even as Emmy struggles to establish her independence. Empty nest syndrome, as well as her own identity issues, make Emmy’s mother more than just a cardboard cliché character. The author takes a unique approach with Emmy as well, forcing her to realize that her amateur detecting has very real and unintended consequences. The author of the Vintage Clothing Mystery series under her name Angela M. Sanders, it shouldn’t be too surprising then that kites are viewed as being similar to couture clothing. For Emmy, kites are works of art more than they are a competitive sport. They mystery investigation itself proves to be realistic and satisfying, with the Emmy who emerges at the conclusion more mature than when she began. Her growth and development, along with that of her fellow Rock Point neighbors, promise for even more entertaining mysteries in the future.