Title: Murder Is Binding (A Booktown Mystery, #1)Author: Lorna Barrett
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Publication Date: April, 2008
Paperback: 281 pages
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Rating: 7/10
Description: Stoneham, New Hampshire, was a dying town until community leaders invited booksellers to open up shop. Now, its streets are lined with bookstores --- and paved with murder…
When she moved to Stoneham, city slicker Tricia Miles met nothing but friendly faces. And when she opened her mystery bookstore, she met friendly competition. But when she finds Doris Gleason dead in her own cookbook store, killed by a carving knife, the atmosphere seems more cutthroat than cordial. Someone wanted to get their hands on the rare cookbook that Doris had recently purchased-and the locals think that someone is Tricia. To clear her name, Tricia will have to take a page out of one of her own mysteries-and hunt down someone who isn't killing by the book.
My Thoughts: A mystery set in and around a bookstore is intriguing, but when there’s a whole town dedicated to a slew of bookstores, how can any true bibliophile pass that up? Where this story lacks in intensity and real mystery, it makes up for in the whimsy of the village of Stoneham. While reading, I found myself not really caring so much who the murderer was as much as I was intrigued by the town and the bookshops. I kept hoping that our heroine would frequent more of them in an attempt to give the reader a broader picture of what this “booktown” entailed.
The reader is given enough clues early on in the story to figure out the identity of the killer with minimal effort. In addition to the primary murder mystery, there are some additional storylines that I found to be interesting and will enjoy seeing how they play out further along in the series.
Though I enjoyed most of the characters, I did not care for Tricia’s sister, Angelica or the Sheriff. As we will be seeing more of these characters in future books, there’s always a chance they will have some redeeming qualities and my opinion of them will change. One can only hope, right?
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