Ocean City Lowdown

 

Title:

Ocean City Lowdown

Author:
Kim Kash

Series:
Jamie August, book 1

About the Author (Goodreads):
Kim Kash is the author of Ocean City Lowdown: A Jamie August Novel and the bestselling Ocean City: A Guide to Maryland’s Seaside Resort. She is a founder of the Greenbelt Farmers Market near Washington, D.C. Topics she covers as a freelance writer for range from federal government policy to yoga, food and travel. A few years ago, Kim and her husband sold everything and moved to the Middle East. She has since traveled to more than a dozen countries and has taken up sailing, diving, and rock climbing.

Book Summary (Goodreads):
Ocean City Lowdown introduces Eastern Shore Maryland reporter Jamie August, who has a talent for unearthing more than her editor wants and a weakness for Ravens jerseys and sparkly underwear. She is assigned to cover the grand opening of a big new housing development in Ocean City, Maryland. But instead of writing about wrap-around porches and rattan furnishings, she uncovers kickbacks and payoffs, blackmail and murder. Jamie's tenacity, smarts, and sheer recklessness—plus some smokin’ striptease dance moves—can get her out of some tight spots, but are they enough to save her from a psychopathic arsonist and two generations of corrupt real estate tycoons?

I'd Recommend to:
Retirees that move to the Ocean City/Ocean Pines area  

My rating:
4/5

My Thoughts:

I love to support local authors and I love a good mystery, so Ocean City Lowdown seemed like the perfect book. There are a lot of name-dropping of Ocean City places that I feel like older folks that have retired to the area would love to see in a novel. This book was first published in 2013, but some aspects of it seem much more dated. 

Jamie August is a reporter for the local entertainment newspaper and was put on assignment to cover the opening of a new residential community. However, she wants to be an investigative journalist and wants to dig deeper into this community than just post a fluff piece. It doesn't sit right with her that the new community is on top of marshland, and she wants to get to the bottom of it. She starts digging and gets so close to incriminating evidence against the multi-million-dollar corporation and the family that owns it that they try to permanently silence her, several times. 

It was a fun read and I appreciate that the "sexy bits" didn't have too many details (that's why I prefer Young Adult books over adult books even though I'm 26). However, as an Ocean City local there were some little details that bugged me which is why I think it's better for retirees that have moved here rather than locals that live here. I feel like it ended very quickly and I'm still a little confused on the details of how it all went down; it had a big drama scene then cut to a few days later without really explaining what happened in that drama scene. But like I said, it was a cute story and I know Marylanders love seeing our state in writing so I'm sure many a Marylander will enjoy it.