Bookclubbed to Death
After the local library in North Harbor, Michigan, is flooded in a storm, Sam offers her bookstore as a new venue for the Mystery Mavens Book Club. Unfortunately, she immediately runs afoul of the club leader, Delia Marshall, a book reviewer who can make or break careers, something Sam can ill afford with her debut historical mystery soon to be published. But the next morning, Sam opens her shop to find the unpleasant woman dead on the floor, bashed with a heavy, apparently lethal, tome: the Complete Works of Agatha Christie.
While Sam is busy writing her latest British historical mystery in which the queen mother is suspected in the murder of a London Times correspondent, a pair of ambitious cops suspect Sam of the real-life crime. When she gathers Nano Jo and their friends from the Shady Acres Retirement Village to review the case, they discover that every Maven has a motive. With her novel about to hit the stores, Sam must find out who clubbed Delia before a judge throws the book at her.
The Details
Series: Mystery Bookshop – Book #8
Author: VM Burns
Genre/Category: Cozy – Author/Bookstore
Publisher: Kensington Cozies
ISBN: 1496739469
Page Count: 240
Rating: 
The Review
Book reviewers can be a writer’s best friend or their worse enemy. Sam finds this out the easy way, by discovering one of them dead in her bookstore. When Nana Jo and the Mavens get involved in the investigation, Sam knows there will be no peace until the killer has been found and her name, along with the Mavens, is cleared. Bookclubbed to Death takes readers down the road of the less traveled and puts them on a clear highway to intrigue.
The characters in this series are always a joy to revisit. Sam and Nana Jo keep things interesting, and the Mavens help with everything from research to clean up. A nasty book reviewer who is the leader of the Mavens book club fits the bill of an unsympathetic victim from the beginning. No one is sad when she meets her end. But nasty or otherwise, no one deserves to be murdered. All the evidence seems to point to Sam as the killer. Did one too many critical reviews tip an author over the edge? Or did something from the past rear its ugly head? Truth is stranger than fiction, so they say, and it doesn’t take long for readers to discover that sometimes things they thought were true are nothing more than a rumor or perhaps purposeful deception.
The ending of Bookclubbed to Death will make book reviewers and writers think twice before posting or publishing their material. I loved that the victim was killed with an Agatha Christie book; it seems fitting for a book reviewer. I adore the Mavens and Nana Jo in particular. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of their book club? Sam is a fun character that gives readers hour after hour of entertainment. The book within a book continues in this latest addition to the series and may even be better than the actual mystery. This is a must-read for fans of VM Burns and the series. This was an excellent read. I look forward to the next one.
The Author
Valerie writes cozy mysteries, children’s books, and screenplays. Valerie currently lives in Eastern Tennessee with her two poodles. Contact her on social media or via her website. Other books by Valerie that readers will enjoy are Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder, and Killer Words.
Contact The Cozy Review
Leave a Reply