For the mystery book lovers of Ashton Corners, burial plots tell the most intriguing stories.
The members of the Ashton Corners Mystery Readers and Cheese Straws Society are all chipping in as Molly Mathews, now owner of the bookstore the Book Nook, prepares the first annual Mystery Book Fair. While gossip circulates about the guest authors, club member Lizzie Turner is unpleasantly surprised to see a certain book publicist make an appearance. It seems Lizzie has a history with Ashley Dixon—a chapter of her life she’d rather leave closed.
But when someone gives Ashley a death sentence, Lizzie becomes the prime suspect in a murder mystery she can’t put down. Now Lizzie and her fellow book buffs have to read between the lines of the publicist’s past and catch the real killer before Lizzie is written off for good.
Lizzie Turner and the rest of the members of the Ashton Corners Mystery Readers and Cheese Straws Society have agreed to help Molly Mathews host the first annual Mystery Book Fair. Molly now owns a bookstore called A Novel Plot and wants to create a fun event that will introduce readers to a few of their favorite authors as well as promote her store. Everything is going well until Lizzie realizes one of the book publicists is her old college roommate Ashley Dixon. Lizzie and Ashley didn’t part on good terms and before long the two women have a very heated and very public argument. Even though Lizzie is dating Mark Dreyfus, the town’s chief of police, she soon becomes a murder suspect when Ashley is found dead, the obvious victim of murder.
I really enjoy the premise of this series in which a group of friends belong to a book club and share their opinions about books and also the ups and downs of everyday life. The characters seem real and are easy to relate to. As in prior books in the series, to make the book club theme come to life, each chapter beings with a short quote from real mystery novels, ranging from classics by Rex Stout to new favorites by Julie Hyzy. Between the intriguing quotes and the reading lists by book club members at the end of the book, I always get new ideas for new mysteries to read from cozies to hard-boiled.
In Book Fair and Foul, the main character Lizzie is the prime suspect in the murder. I don’t usually care for books in which the main character is suspected of and/or framed for murder. However, the way it’s handled in this book makes it more enjoyable than usual. This is mostly because from the very beginning, Lizzie’s boyfriend, friends, and most of the townspeople supported Lizzie, in spite of how things looked. Lizzie being a suspect also gives her a good reason to investigate the case, but it’s great to see that her good friends Molly, Sally-Jo, and Paige never doubt her. The friends do some investigating on their own and feed important information to Mark so he can see there are plenty of other suspects that could have wanted the unpleasant Ashley dead.
Things eventually wrap up and an exciting announcement is made by one of the characters at the very end of the book. After the stress of one of their own being falsely suspected of murder, it’s great that the book club will now have something exciting to celebrate. This is sure to provide an interesting subplot in the next book. Fans of Ellery Adams or Elizabeth Lynn Casey will enjoy this Southern, book-centered mystery by Erika Chase.
Reviewed by Christine
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