FLOOD TIDE by Albert Waitt; Level Best Books, 2024; 285 pages, $16.95; ISBN 978-1-68512-611-7.

FLOOD TIDE

The Chief of Police of Laurel, Maine, LT Nichols, is a small-town cop with a big heart, quick fists and a stubborn streak. He also does not like being pushed around by people who think he is just a Barney Fife with a badge. And now he has a case that just might bury him.

“Flood Tide” by Kennebunkport author Al Waitt is the second book in his excellent mystery series featuring LT Nichols (LT stands for his undesirable nickname), following “The Ruins of Woodman’s Village” in 2023.  Waitt has a good thing going here — a solid mystery, wholly believable characters, a complex, well-drawn plot, and a 1988 political angle that won’t sound like fiction at all.

When the dead body of Alex Grimes is found in the water at low tide, Nichols knows he is in trouble. Alex is the drunken, indolent son of Laurel’s richest, most prominent summer resident, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. The death appears to be an accidental drowning, but Nichols isn’t sure. He is stunned when the father declares the case closed and demands the immediate release of the body. He will not allow an intrusive police investigation.

Nichols refuses to cooperate and bad things begin to happen. The state police seize evidence and say it never existed, a hot-shot U.S. Marshal flies in, takes over, shuts Nichols out, and quickly announces the arrest of the son’s killer. Nichols cannot believe the case went from an accident to murder in just two days, an obvious cover-up, but for what purpose?

However, Nichols is just mad enough to keep digging, attracting a desperate hit-man, dangerously duplicitous and threatening federal agents, and the bitter enmity of powerful people who believe “the truth doesn’t matter.” And what Nichols finds is scary enough.

STEPHEN KING’S MAINE: A HISTORY & GUIDE by Sharon Kitchens; The History Press, 2024; 205 pages, $24.99; ISBN 978-1-4671-5714-8.

STEPHEN KING’S MAINE: A HISTORY & GUIDE

Stephen King is one of Maine’s most popular writers, certainly one of the most prolific and profitable storytellers, in good company with folks like Elizabeth Strout, Richard Russo and Ruth Moore.

His books of mystery, horror and the macabre have scared the daylights out of millions of readers; yet he modestly claims “I am the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries.” As a Mainer, King often uses Maine locations and characters in his stories, and King fan Sharon Kitchens set out to explore and find King’s inspiration right at home.

“Stephen King’s Maine” is Kitchen’s fun, personal journey across Maine looking for towns, businesses, professions and locations featured in many of King’s books.

Kitchens covers much of King’s life in Maine, growing up in Durham, attending high school in Lisbon Falls, college at Orono, interviewing people who know King and visiting places that he’s used in his stories. She also interviewed people whose jobs King features in his books — police officer, cemetery supervisor, librarian, spiritualist and a gravedigger — to better understand who King so cleverly weaves into his authentic character portrayals.

The book is arranged geographically and highlights fictional towns with real places like Derry (Bangor), real places in stories like Durham (“Carrie,” “It”), the Freyburg Fair (“The Dead Zone”), Bridgton (“Cujo,” “Bag of Bone”). She also reveals some of King’s favorite things — book stores, libraries, sausage sandwiches and H.P. Lovecraft’s weird imagination.

Best are the two gravedigger jokes (hilarious), the “how to dig a grave by hand” tutorial, and Kitchen’s hand-drawn maps and itineraries for finding some of the fictional/real locations featured in his stories. And for aspiring writers, don’t miss King’s “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft” (2020).

Bill Bushnell lives and writes in Harpswell.