ASIN: B00G3L13KQ
ISBN-13: 978-1101637289
Publisher: Penguin Group
Line: Berkley
Release Date: Jul 1, 2014
Pages: 320
Digital Retail: 12.99
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Genre: Mystery
Rating:
New York Times bestselling author Lorna Barrett is back in town—Booktown, that is—with another page-turning mystery. This time bookstore owner Tricia Miles and her sister, Angelica, put their own problems on the shelf to catch a killer who turns a bookcase into a murder weapon…
Cranky Chamber of Commerce receptionist Betsy Dittmeyer is done reading people the riot act. After she’s crushed by a fallen bookcase, the next item to be read is her last will and testament—which is packed with surprises. It soon comes to light that Betsy was hiding volumes of dark secrets behind that perpetual frown of hers—and one of them just might have been a motive for murder.
While Tricia tries to help Angelica—the newly elected Chamber of Commerce president and Betsy’s boss—solve the mystery, she discovers a hidden chapter in her own family history that rocks her to her very core. And with her ex-husband and the chief of police vying for her affections, it’s doubly hard to focus on who might have buried Betsy in a tomb of tomes.
But as Tricia and Angelica try to read between the lines, they need to watch their step…and make sure the killer doesn’t catch them between the stacks.
Review
For fans of: Virginia Lowell
Tricia Miles' sister Angelica might have successfully campaigned to become the new Chamber of Commerce president, but as it turns out, successfully running the Chamber itself may be beyond her capabilities. Thanks to the antics of the disgruntled former president (a man who just so happens to be the town's only real estate agent), the Chamber has no office space. Angelica decides to run things out of her shop's storeroom until she can find more permanent digs, but then the Chamber's receptionist, Betsy Dittmeyer, goes and gets herself killed in said storeroom, again displacing the Chamber and leaving it employee-less, to boot. Who murdered the woman, and why? Did her death have anything to do with her job, or was the attack personal? The Miles sisters are determined to solve the crime and to get the Chamber back on its feet, even if it kills them...
There's a lot to like about Book Clubbed, the eighth installment in Lorna Barrett's Booktown Mystery series. Barrett's created an ideal setting for her books in the New Hampshire village of Stoneham; full of quaint shops and quirky characters, it's a warm and welcoming place to lose yourself for an afternoon. She wastes no time in dispatching her victim, but makes sure to do plenty of post-mortem character development; Barrett paints a picture of Betsy Dittmeyer that makes you sympathize with her whilst also understanding how someone could be moved to murder her. The setup is clever, the mystery's got great potential, and there's no shortage of viable suspects.
That said, there's as much wrong with Book Clubbed as there is right. The pace plods. The dialogue doesn’t quite ring true, and neither do the characters' relationships. The drama feels forced and artificial, and the B-story that centers on Tricia's strained relationship with her mother feels like it was jammed into the plot using a shoehorn. Tricia’s too prudish, judgmental, and officious to like, let alone root for (why on earth are so many men vying for this shrew's affection?). And while I like how and where Barrett ultimately ends her tale, the solution to Book Clubbed's central mystery is both ridiculous and unearned. Throw in a few plot threads that Barrett fails to tie off and you have what amounts to a somewhat shrug-worthy reading experience.
Reviewed by Kat