Anna Fitzgerald Healy's debut novel, Etiquette for Lovers and Killers, is a darkly humorous, lighthearted romp of a mystery set in mid-1960s Down East Maine with an unusual heroine. Billie McCadie is a townie in Eastport, where "fishermen squatting in trailers" abut "Vanderbilts languishing in mansions." She's never felt at home with the other locals, who fail to appreciate her sarcasm or her ambition to study linguistics and work in a museum.
But then comes the fateful summer when Avery Webster notices her. Billie receives an envelope containing a love letter to an unknown Gertrude, along with an engagement ring. She is invited to a solstice party at the fabulously wealthy Webster family's estate, where she discovers a freshly murdered corpse--Gertrude. Avery has the potential to be Billie's first taste of romance, but the strange communications pile up, along with the bodies, in sleepy, previously crime-free Eastport. Billie leaps into all of it, because "Who needs a life when you're busy investigating a murder?"
Billie's never been in such danger, but she's also never had as much fun, finally coming into herself and learning what she might want from life aside from a museum job: "So what if I've ended up in a Highsmith rather than an Austen? I'm the main character, and I need to start acting like it."
Stylish, playful, and more than a little tongue-in-cheek, Etiquette for Lovers and Killers blends intrigue and romance into a perfect cocktail. Billie herself offers a delightful combination of bookishness, wit, and questionable decision-making that will keep readers on edge until the final pages. Healy's debut is good, not-so-clean fun. --Julia Kastner, blogger at pagesofjulia