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Sabrina Dunsweeney decided after losing her mother and after her own cancer scare that she should retire from teaching and move away from Cincinnati. She settled on the island of Comico – which the author admits is fictitious – somewhere south of anywhere cold. Sabrina and her bird, Calvin, are trying to adjust to a different lifestyle. Since she can’t seem to keep her nose out of anyone’s business, Sabrina finds herself asked to become Island Ombudsman by the town council; most especially by one council-person, Mary Tubbs, who is generally annoyed by Sabrina’s butting in on everyone’s business. While she has no clear guidelines on what her job entails, Sabrina does know that one of her duties is to smooth over the friction between the vacationers and the people who live all year round on the island. The friction arises from the slightly unethical practices of a travel agent who sees a way to make a quick killing by booking unusual, not to mention slightly disreputable groups on island vacations. The islanders are mad as heck, and they aren’t going to take it any more. Take the Hummers. Not the vehicles, but the people who hear humming in their heads, or ringing in their ears, or whatever the constant irritating noise is that they cannot escape. It is a persistent and invasive low frequency noise whose source and nature is a mystery. Hummers International purports to help cure individuals with this problem. Thus, a highly diverse group has descended upon the island hoping for a cure for their problem. And there is the source of most of the recent problems on the Island. Sabrina, for having been a teacher, comes across as slightly scatter-brained. When attempting to right wrongs she invariably causes more problems than she solves. Of course she takes her position as Island Ombudsman very seriously but soon the council members realize that perhaps they have made a mistake in giving her the job. When a body of one of the Hummer organizers turns up on a nearby island, and everyone blames her meddling, Sabrina feels that she must help to solve the crime. The author spent a good deal of time in the Outer Banks of North Carolina and certainly gets the isolated islanders vs. the tourists’ conflict right. While the money that comes in from the tourists is appreciated, their presence on the roads, in the restaurants and the shops and pretty much anywhere is resented. It might be nice if they would just leave their money behind and flee back north where they came from. Living as I do in Southwest Florida, I completely understand the thinking behind that theory! The book is fluffy but fun and makes a good beach book or a book for a rainy Saturday afternoon. Sabrina triumphs at the end in spite of her dizzy nature and will surely come back again another day in a third book.
Reviewed by Lorraine Gelly, March 2007
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