Flying Solo

Holmes’s (host of the podcast Pop Culture Happy House) charming, often hilarious second book is set in the same small Maine town as her first (Evvie Drake Starts Over), with some of the same supporting cast. Laurie Sassalyn recently called off her wedding and is back in her hometown of Calcasset, ME, to clean out the house of her beloved late great-aunt Dot. Hidden away inside is a wooden duck decoy; Laurie has it appraised, learns that it has minimal value, and sells it to an antique dealer for $50. When she realizes the appraisal was fraudulent, she and friends both old and new plan a heist to get the decoy duck back. At the same time, Laurie is giving serious thought to the kind of life she wants to lead and the fact that it looks a lot like the life of resolutely unmarried Dot, who had plenty of friends, travel, meaningful work, extended family, and hobbies, plus an active love life well into her eighth decade. But when Laurie reconnects with her first love, Nick, who’s now divorced and running the Calcasset library, it complicates her plans.