Little Bookshop of Murder
Summer Merriweather’s career as a Shakespeare professor hangs by a bookbinder’s thread. Academic life at her Virginia university is a viper’s pit, so Summer spends her summer in England, researching a scholarly paper that, with any luck, will finally get her published, impress the Dean, and save her job. But her English idyll ends when her mother, Hildy, shuffles off her mortal coil from an apparent heart attack.
Returning to Brigid’s Island, NC, for the funeral, Summer is impatient to settle the estate, sell her mom’s embarrassingly romance-themed bookstore, Beach Reads, and go home. But as she drops by Beach Reads, Summer finds threatening notes addressed to Hildy: “Sell the bookstore or die.”
Clearly, something is rotten on Brigid’s Island. What method is behind the madness? Was Hildy murdered? The police insist there’s not enough evidence to launch a murder investigation. Instead, Summer and her Aunt Agatha screw their courage to the sticking place and start sleuthing, with the help of Hildy’s beloved book club. But there are more suspects on Brigid’s Island than are dreamt of in the Bard’s darkest philosophizing. And if Summer can’t find the villain, the town will be littered with a Shakespearean tragedy’s worth of corpses–including her own.
Series: A Beach Read Mystery – Book #1
Author: Maggie Blackburn (aka Mollie Cox Bryan)
Genre: Cozy Mystery/Bookshop
Publisher: Crooked Lane
Publishing Date: September 8, 2020
Rating: 
A new series out now from Crooked Lane and Maggie Blackburn/Mollie Bryan, Little Bookshop of Murder in the “A Beach Read Mystery” bookshop series will be available soon.
Summer, as a character is hard to like. Although I understand wanting as a teenager to be utterly different from her mother, right down to the type of books she enjoys, but as an adult, she seems to still be a rebellious teenager. Even with her mother dead, and presumed murdered, she has instances when her snobby attitude towards fiction books, romance, in particular, comes in to play. Now the owner of her mother’s bookstore, she seems determined to hate it no matter that her mother worked her entire life to make the bookshop something people love. The arachnophobia is far too outlandish as well. However, by the end of the book, many readers will begin to accept Summer for who she is and what she is becoming.
Other characters, such as Aunt Agatha, Summer’s cousin, and what is now her bookshop employee, all have characteristics that are easy to like, and hopefully, as the series grows will become an intricate part of each book. A good background on the characters would have helped this book be better and will be a must in the next addition. Readers need to know who the characters are, what happened in their lives, such as, why are none of them involved in a relationship, what happened to Mia’s father, was Piper ever married, or was she a single mom. Too many questions were left unanswered or not addressed at all.
The murder of Summer’s mother isn’t plain to everyone, but as the story evolves, readers are presented with evidence that shows she was most assuredly killed. She died in her beloved bookstore with witnesses, yet no one seems to have questioned anything until Summer arrives. Unfortunately, the killer is evident from the start, and most readers will figure out the motive quickly. For a debut novel in a series, Little Bookshop of Murder is a bit disappointing, especially from a seasoned writer. I feel this series could be enjoyable if attention is given to the issues in the next installment to help readers like the characters and keep turning the page.
A couple of highly entertaining bookstore cozies are Kym Roberts fun “A Book Barn Mystery” or Amy Lillard’s wonderful “Main Street Book Club Mysteries“.
About the Author:
Maggie Blackburn, aka Mollie Cox Bryan, is a writer of women’s stories. Her stories have many forms: cookbooks, articles, essays, poetry, and fiction. Mollie grew up near Pittsburgh, Pa., and attended Point Park University, where she received a B.A. in Journalism and Communications. Her first real job out of college was as a paste-up artist at a small newspaper, where she was allowed to write “on her own time,” and she did.
She is the author of the Cora Crafts mysteries and the Cumberland Creek mysteries under another pen name. Her books have been selected as finalists for an Agatha Award and a Daphne du Maurier Award and as a Top 10 Beach Reads by Woman’s World. She has also been short-listed for the Virginia Library People’s Choice Award. She is the mother of two young women who is off following their dreams in the music business. She currently lives in Waynesboro, VA, and works at the University of Virginia as a development associate.
Represented by Jill Marsal of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.
Contact Molly/Maggie: molliebryan@comcast.net
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