The best book I read this month was the fifth and latest in Patricia Skalka’s Dave Cubiak Door County mystery series, Death by the Bay. The book is my second favorite in the series, behind Death in Cold Water—the series’ third entry. Like the rest of Skalka’s Cubiak books, it’s a relatively short book, and I was able to read it cover to cover in a single day.
Unlike the previous Cubiak books, this one is based on—or rather inspired by—true events. (I can’t say what events because that would give away too much of the mystery.) It’s a complex mystery, with plenty of twists and turns, and while the solution to the mystery was satisfying, I found the end of the book (the scene post-solution) to be far too convenient. There’s also a point-of-view switch in that last scene that didn’t work for me. But those are my only quibbles with what is otherwise a very solidly crafted mystery.