Steven Axelrod takes us back to Nantucket in Nantucket Penny, but it’s not the luxurious island you expect.

It’s autumn on Nantucket. With the tourists gone, the island should be peaceful, and Police Chief Henry Kennis and his police force should be able to relax. Instead, they’re dealing with gangs, racism, and problems at the high school. Kennis left California for a job on a small-town police force. Now, he’s in deep trouble with two threats to his fiancee, author Jane Stiles.

He ignores the first one because the warning comes from Australia. Five women have been killed, all in their mid-thirties. They all look alike. And, they all resemble Jane, whose picture is on the back cover of one of her books left at a crime scene. Even when a friend warns him that people are being killed, it’s easy to just hire a couple bodyguards.

But, there’s something darker happening on Nantucket. People are disappearing. And, it’s going to take quite a while before, Henry, an off-islander, can connect the dots. It’s Henry’s aging mother who gives him a clue. “The past is coming for all of you.”

Nantucket Penny is a complicated mess with a nail-biter climax. There are a couple storylines that didn’t need to be there, and all the conspiracies and plots mean I had a hard time connecting characters with the storyline. There are way too many characters, and way too many potential victims to keep them all straight. Honestly? As much as I like Henry and his family, I felt overwhelmed at times.

Nantucket Penny by Steven Axelrod. Sourcebooks/Poisoned Pen Press, 2021. ISBN 9781464214165 (paperback), 304p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a .PDF to review for a journal.