Seventeen-year-old Vanessa Sands and her family have always spent the summer at their cabin in Winter Harbor, Maine. When Vanessa's older sister Justine is killed in a diving accident, Vanessa thinks there is more to her death than there seems, especially when Caleb Carmichael, Justine's boyfriend in Winter Harbor, goes missing, and other people start dying in the same way as Justine. Vanessa investigates the mystery, with the help of Caleb's older brother Simon.
The books in the series:
- Siren (2010)
- Undercurrent (2011)
- Dark Water (2012)
Siren contains examples of:
- 555: After Carla Marciano is killed in Dark Water, the local newspaper tells readers to call the Winter Harbor PD at 207-555-3900.
- Antagonistic Offspring: Betty is the White Sheep of her family as one of the few sirens who don't want to murder humans. A few years ago, she was blinded in an accident while swimming. Ever since then, her daughter Raina has been keeping her indoors, preventing her from swimming, and giving her just enough saltwater to stay alive but not enough to be strong and healthy so Raina and Zara can kill people without Betty trying to intervene.
- Apparently Human Merfolk: Sirens look exactly like humans, except for their silver eyes.
- Break-Up/Make-Up Scenario: In Undercurrent, Vanessa breaks up with Simon rather than tell him she's a siren. She flirts with Parker King before finally getting back with Simon after saving him from the sirens.
- Calling Parents by Their Name: Zara and Paige Marchand call their mom "Raina" because she doesn't feel old enough to be the mother of teenagers.
- Celebrity Resemblance: In Undercurrent, Vanessa's mom shows her an old video and asks her if she recognizes anyone. Vanessa thinks one of the people is George Clooney. It's actually her dad.
- Cut Phone Lines: Caleb calls Simon from a payphone, but by the time Simon finds it, the line has been cut.
- Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: After Charlotte got pregnant, she let Vanessa's dad go without killing him, which no siren is supposed to do. When the other sirens started to get suspicious, she fled to Canada with baby Vanessa. When Vanessa's dad tracked them down, Charlotte realized how much he loved Vanessa and let him take her, figuring that Vanessa would be safest if she had no connection with Charlotte. She was right - after Charlotte disappeared after an "accidental" fire, Vanessa grew up safely in Boston, having no idea that she was a siren.
- Dies Wide Open: Every male victim is found with his eyes open, grinning from ear to ear.
- Emotion Eater: Sirens feed off of men's attraction to them. They gain the most strength by luring a man into the ocean and drowning him.
- Empty Bedroom Grieving: Justine's bedroom has been kept the way she left it. In Undercurrent, her mom even puts away her summer clothes and brings out her winter clothes, as if she were still alive.
- Hands-On Approach: In Dark Water, Vanessa flirts with suspected serial killer Colin in order to get information out of him. Colin takes her kayaking, and she deliberately sits incorrectly so he'll have to touch her back to correct her posture.
- Headache of Doom: Vanessa gets a splitting headache whenever she's around the siren Zara.
- How Dad Met Mom: Vanessa asks her aunt Willa how her biological parents met. Willa tells her that they met at the bookstore Charlotte owned in the early '90s. Charlotte didn't want to harm a human, but seducing men is the only way sirens can gain power, and Charlotte is from such a powerful lineage that her magic was able to overpower his love for his wife.
- I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: In Undercurrent, Vanessa asks an EMT about the latest siren murder. He isn't supposed to talk about it, but because of her siren beauty, he happily tells her everything he knows, although he doesn't have much useful information.
- Jacob and Esau: Justine bonded with her mom over girly things like shopping and spa trips, while Vanessa had no interest in those things and was always closer to her dad. It turns out she couldn't connect with her mom because she isn't her biological daughter.
- Magic Music: Siren song can be used to hypnotize or steal energy from men, as well as to exert dominance over other sirens.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Caleb's love for Justine was so strong that he was the first person who ever resisted Zara's seduction, so Zara drowned Justine. It didn't work - after Justine's death, Caleb fled Winter Harbor to escape Zara.
- Never Found the Body: When Charlotte Bleu's bookstore burned down, her body was believed to have been destroyed by the flames. In fact, she faked her death, moved to South Boston, and started a new life as her "sister" Willa.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": In Undercurrent, Vanessa breaks into her dad's computer by correctly guessing his password: "Charlotte Bleu," the siren who was Vanessa's biological mother.
- The Power of Love: True love is the best defense against a siren's powers.
- Puberty Superpower: Sirens are just like ordinary humans until they reach childbearing age. Then they gain the ability to breathe water and enchant men, but also need to spend a few hours a day immersed in saltwater, or they eventually lose the ability to breathe.
- Sibling Rivalry: Justine was a popular, outgoing risk-taker. Vanessa always thought that was just her personality, but she later learns that Justine was jealous of all the attention Vanessa got without even trying because of her siren ancestry, and felt like she had to go to great lengths to get anyone to notice her.
- Tell Me About My Father: Charlotte's sister Willa promised Vanessa's dad long ago that someday she'd answer any questions Vanessa had about Charlotte. When they finally meet in Undercurrent, Willa tells Vanessa about Charlotte and her relationship with Vanessa's father.
- Troubled Fetal Position: When Simon and Vanessa find Caleb, he's hiding from Zara in a truck, curled in a ball.
- Unable to Cry: Vanessa finds herself unable to shed a tear after Justine's death.
- Vegetarian Vampire: Some sirens try to live without killing men, instead getting their energy from drinking large amounts of salt water and flirting with or singing to men. Their lives are much harder than those of other sirens - they're constantly thirsty for salt water, they're weaker than others, and they tend to die young.
- We Can Rule Together: Vanessa's siren magic is so strong that in both Undercurrent and Dark Water, different groups of murderous sirens try to recruit her to help them gain power.
- Weird Weather: Each death occurs during an unforecasted heavy storm that forms rapidly over Winter Harbor and dissipates just as suddenly. Meteorologists are baffled by the number of mysterious storms, and by the fact that they never happen over any town in the area besides Winter Harbor.
- Zipping Up the Bodybag: After Colin drowns in Dark Water, Vanessa drapes her jacket over his eyes.
