BEAR AND THE OXBOW ISLAND GANG by Rae Chalmers; Maine Authors Publishing, 2020; 197 pages, $11.95.

As a former island schoolteacher and now author Rae Chalmers has a keen appreciation for kids and Maine island life, a challenging combination she presents well in her debut novel for young readers, ages 8-11 years old.

“Bear and the Oxbow Island Gang” is an environmental mystery set on a Maine island just offshore from Portland. Chalmers uses the scene to address thorny issues like poaching, destruction of animal habitat, and how kids and adults can work together to solve problems and catch bad guys.

This mystery combines suspense, humor, snappy dialogue and real concerns into a fun, colorful story with lessons for everyone. Bear is a chubby 11-year-old boy suspended from school for a week for losing his temper in a classroom confrontation with a bully. His parents send him to stay with his grandmother on Oxbow Island, to continue his schoolwork remotely. Bear is curious and impulsive, often speaking before thinking, which gets him into heaps of trouble.

On the island, Bear soon discovers evidence that someone is poaching beaver and deliberately destroying their lodges. The nasty animal control officer is no help, so Bear and his new friend, 12-year-old Olivia, organize a few adults in a plan to catch the poacher, but suspects abound. The Oxbow Island Gang (including a wheelchair Dad, a professor, a 90-year-old lady and the hippie taxi driver) cooks up an elaborate scheme to identify and trap the culprit, relying on brains, courage, carpentry, luck and a very stinky weapon.

They are surprised with their catch, and Bear learns not to judge people too quickly. For more environmental mysteries for young readers, see the “Cooper & Packrat” series by Tamra Wight.

 

A VIEW TO A KILT:  A LISA MACCRIMMON SCOTTISH MYSTERY by Kaitlyn Dunnett; Kensington Books, 2020; 281 pages, $26

In a small Maine town like Moosetookalook everyone knows everybody and their business. So when an unidentified dead body is found in Liss MacCrimmon’s backyard, folks wonder: Who is this guy and what’s he doing here?

Liss is the featured amateur detective in western Maine author Kaitlyn Dunnett’s excellent Scottish cozy mystery series. “A View to a Kilt” is the 13th mystery in the series, after “Overkilt.”  Moosetookalook is in Maine, not Scotland, and Liss isn’t Scottish (neither is Dunnett), but Liss does own the Scottish Emporium, a Scottish theme gift shop.

This is probably the most intricate mystery yet, with multiple, complex, converging plot lines, solid suspense, well-placed clues and misdirection and an air of true malice. Dunnett nails it with this entertaining mystery.

Once finally identified, the murder victim is a man everybody knew but believed to have been killed 50 years before in Vietnam. His life during those 50 years is the real mystery, full of secrets and dark shadows, hiding the real reason he came to Moosetookalook.

Meanwhile, an international water-bottling corporation is pressuring the town for unlimited access to the town’s water aquifer. There’s big money at stake, but something is fishy with the deal and the too-comfy relationship between gullible town selectmen, the snarky corporation CEO and his menacing fixer. Liss’s obscure connection with the murder victim draws her unwittingly into the murder investigation and the water deal, as well as to a deadly car accident decades before.

The cops aren’t much help, Liss’s meddling, annoying mother and a peculiar woman in black complicate every move, and the sudden appearance of a tight-lipped government spook who has his own agenda is most unsettling. The spook very carefully and pointedly warns Liss to not look to closely into anything.

Bill Bushnell lives and writes in Harpswell.

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