A Page Marked For Murder
January isn’t the season for the seaside, but the big Fire and Ice festival is keeping bookstore owner Addie busy. Amid the plans for a fireworks display and an ice-carving competition, she’s also dog sitting for a friend in the hospital. When Addie goes to her friend’s house to gather supplies, she notices an interesting item on the nightstand which belongs to her shop assistant, Paige: a very valuable copy of the beloved children’s book The Secret Garden.
But Addie’s blood runs cold when she finds something else: a dead body behind the bakery next door to her shop. Martha, the bakery owner, has no alibi and has been seen in a heated argument with the victim. The next thing Addie knows, that first edition has gone missing. Is there a connection between the body and the treasured tome? If there is, it’s up to Addie to find a killer with a motive as hidden as Frances Hodgson Burnett’s famous garden.
Series: A Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery – Book #5
Author: Lauren Elliott
Genre: Cozy Mystery/Bookstore/Amature Sleuth
Publisher: Kensington Books
Page Count: 304
Rating: 
For shop owner and amateur sleuth Addie, it’s, findsa body, solve a crime. Isn’t that the way all bookstore keepers react? A Page Marked For Murder is a compelling story filled with beguiling characters, eloquent descriptions, and evidence that will add up, eventually, as well as a mystery for the ages. Is there anything more poignant than a suspect who doesn’t have an alibi but has every reason to commit a crime? This isn’t Addie’s first murder. She was hoping that she would never again experience the fear, pain, and curiosity that an investigation into the untimely death of a human can bring. But here she is, back on the trail of a killer.
The main suspects are all viable; each has a legitimate motive. Even though it seems that all of the suspects have alibi’s, except one, is this really the case? As an amateur sleuth, Addie faces issues; namely, she can’t ask the questions a detective can or force people to give her answers. With a bookstore to run, friends being accused of murder, and a slew of interruptions and distractions, it isn’t easy to get to the bottom of the case. But as she has in the past, Addie finds a way to get the information she needs to catch the killer and prove her friend innocent.
A Page Marked For Murder is a calm, easy-to-read book that will hold the reader’s attention. The plot moves swiftly, conversations are tantalizing and, in many cases, heartwarming. There is enough backstory to keep readers informed and eager to learn more without the need to go back and read the other books in the series. Addie is a caring person who is willing to use her amateur sleuthing to work if it means helping a friend. This makes her a warm, generous, and appealing heroine that readers will love. The bookstore is described so that you can visualize it while reading and desire to spend a few hours pursuing the shelves.
Reader favorite bookstore-based cozies I recommend include Lynn Cahoon’s enduring series “A Tourist Trap Mystery” and the captivating books from Essie Lang’s charming “A Castle Bookshop Mystery”.
About 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 like the logical choice as she had written for as long as she could remember. Soon after graduation, while working for a small publication, she discovered that reporting wasn’t what fueled her writing passions. As someone with an additionally strong background in professional theatre who had a love of 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 is a suspense-filled cozy murder mystery. Her writing never fails to take her readers on a gripping, page-turning adventure.
Contact Lauren – https://laurenelliottauthor.com/contact.html
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