A Margin For Murder
Addie leaves her Greyborne Harbor bookstore, Beyond the Page Books and Curios, in the capable hands of her assistant while she travels to the neighboring town of Pen Hollow to attend a book sale at a library that is closing due to lack of funding. But the real find is a bookmobile bus, which she’s excited to refit as a traveling bookstore to hit all the summer festivals. The bookmobile also holds a surprising treasure: several classic first editions and an early edition of Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses.
But before the bookmobile can be delivered to Addie, a fatal car crash occurs. When an autopsy reveals poison in the victim’s system and the first editions go missing, it’s up to Addie to determine what would drive someone to murder. If she’s not careful, however, she may be the next one to be dead on arrival.
The Details
Series: A Beyond The Page Bookstore Mystery – Book #8
Author: Lauren Elliott
Genre/Category: Cozy – Amature Sleuth/Bookstore
Publisher: Kensington Cozies
ISBN: 1496735137
Page Count: 320
Rating: 
The Review
I love everything about books, cozies in particular, hold a special place in my heart. But a cozy that includes classic books, a bookmobile, murder, and an amateur sleuth? This book is exceptional; readers will find it irresistible. A Margin For Murder has it all, drama, action, intrigue, plenty of fun, lovable characters, and a few quirky ones. In addition, there are great location descriptions and a murder that will have you scratching your head.
After purchasing a bookmobile, Addie waits for the keys to be presented so she can start her new mobile library, but when Luella, the mayor and head of the library committee, is involved in a crash with the bookmobile and dies, Addie is stunned. Finding out that Luella was murdered and Addie and Paige are the police’s number one suspects creates a problem, one only she can solve. It’s a classic game of hide-n-seek, where the winner may end up locked up for life or death.
Suspects come out of the bookmobile woodwork; there is a library full of patrons and greedy auctiongoers who may all have motives to commit murder. Classic books feature throughout the story and are intricate to the plot and the solution to the murder. The victim is, at first read, sympathetic with an edge but not wholly unlikeable. Evidence is thrown around liberally, but nothing so concrete that readers can’t question the importance of any one thing.
The solution to the murder and the bookmobile issue is resolved nicely. Readers will enjoy figuring out the how and why of it all. They may even wonder about those classic books and what makes them so unique. A Margin For Murder will keep you guessing and happily busy solving the murder until the very last page. I am happy to recommend this book and look forward to the next one.
The Author
Lauren Elliott grew up devouring the entire Nancy Drew series and then graduated to Victoria Holt, Agatha Christie, Barbara Erskine, Lynn Kurland, and Michael Crichton, to name a few of her favorite authors. When it came time for post-secondary education, journalism seemed logical as she had written for as long as she could remember. However, soon after graduation, while working for a small publication, she discovered that reporting wasn’t what fueled her writing passions. As someone with an additional strong background in professional theatre who loved storytelling and captivating and holding an audience, her fiction-writing career began to take center stage.
Lauren’s imagination is boundless. All of her books whether they explore different aspects of the paranormal with a dab of romance, fantasy, or a suspense-filled cozy murder mystery. Her writing never fails to take her readers on a gripping, page-turning adventure.
Another book in the “Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery” series I recommend is Murder in the First Edition, or my favorite volume from this series, A Page Marked For Murder.
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