Monday With Kaye: "The Treasures of Montauk Cove" by Diane Sawyer (Reviewed by Kaye George)

My first thought when I was setting this review up—when did Diane Sawyer of ABC write a book? A quick check made it very clear this was a totally different person who has a number of books out. It must make marketing the works an interesting challenge when one shares the same name as a TV celebrity.

The Treasures of Montauk Cove by Diane Sawyer

Lilli Masters, on a stroll along Grayrocks Beach, finds an unlabelled wine bottle, half buried and full of wine. She’s in the area for the Convention on Long Island History, on assignment for a magazine. The first person she visits after her beach stroll is Silas Jones, proprietor of Nautical Treasures, a shop of new and old

merchandise. They’re both looking forward to hearing his friend, Professor Thomas Reed, a marine archeologist, speak the next morning. Little do they know that the sirens they hear going past the shop are from police cars who have been called to the scene of Professor Reed’s murder, the beach Lilli has just left.

Lillie is staying with friends, an older couple, Margaret--whom she calls Gram--and her boyfriend, Bud. They provide transportation and comic scenes throughout the story. She makes her way there from the shop. When the body of  Silas is found behind his shop later the same day, Lilli meets up with the chief of police, Hank Borden, a rather inept policeman. He repeatedly tells Lilli to keep her nose out of his investigation, but she insists on sticking it in.

There are quite a few suspicious characters running around at the conference. Lillie manages to attend a few sessions, snapping photos all the while for her article. She picks up on the tension between two factions. One side is in favor of donating to museums the treasures that are retrieved from shipwrecks, usually by divers. The other side is for finders keepers. Lillie gradually realizes that the wine bottle she found on the beach is in the middle of this conflict, and also the murders.

She strives to solve the case, but not before her life is threatened. Mysterious symbols and old documents hold valuable information if Lilli can figure everything out in time. Puzzle solvers will enjoy this.

Reviewed by Kaye George, Author of A Patchwork of Stories, for Suspense Magazine