Murder in the First Edition
Addie’s getting into the spirit for the upcoming Charity Auction—especially since she’s got an 1843 copy of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol to donate. Her former colleagues at the Boston Public Library have confirmed that its worth runs toward the high five figures, which should help with the new pediatric wing. Her mood darkens, though, when a visitor from the past appears—Jonathan Hemingway, the father of her late fiancé. His presence stirs up sad memories for Addie but also has her fuming when Jonathan, true to his womanizing ways, runs off for a lunchtime liaison with Teresa Lang, who’s in charge of the auction.
Soon after, Addie heads to Teresa’s office at the hospital—and finds the poor woman’s dead body. What she doesn’t find is her valuable first edition. What sort of Scrooge would steal from sick children and commit murder in the process? As a Nor’easter bears down and a mystery emerges about Jonathan’s past, Addie must find out if she can appraise people’s motives and characters as well as she can appraise rare books
Series: A Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery – Book #3
Author: Lauren Elliott
Genre: Cozy Mystery/Holiday
Publisher: Kensington Books
Page Count: 320
Rating: 
The latest in the mystery series “A Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery” published by Kensington Books is Lauren Elliott’s holiday entry Murder in the First Edition.
This new addition to the mystery series has all the elements needed to keep readers turning the page. It is a quick read, has lots of twists and turns, and is filled with suspense. Suspects are, for the most part, easy to like, but pointing fingers is also easy as almost all of them could have done it. It takes a great deal of work to narrow down the motive and to shift between the clues. Was the murder a simple case of a theft gone wrong, or was it personal? These are questions that must be answered to find the killer.
Characters are interesting enough to make readers want to hear more about them, which is one of the main objectives of a mystery series. I enjoyed the new character, Jonathan, Addie’s almost father-in-law. However, I took issue with Addie hating him due to the idea that he was a womanizer. The mere idea that she could hate someone for this reason to the point that she practically accuses him of murder is way too insane. Even if he were a womanizer, that would be no reason to hate him, definitely no reason to accuse him of such a horrible crime.
Unfortunately, this constant barrage of Addie wanting to blame Jonathan for everything that is happening detracts from the plot and the enjoyment of the story. If her late fiancé had issues with his father’s behavior, his anger would have been plausible, but her holding on to some ridiculous grudge against the man for no legitimate reason is bizarre. Addie’s actions and attitude, for me, took away from the overall story and made it difficult to like her. The mystery itself is enthralling, and readers will want to read every last word.
Murder in the First Edition is a nice addition to this mystery series. I am hopeful the next book will show a better side of Addie, and that she will stop holding two men’s affections hostage and make up her mind which one she truly wants to be with.
Daryl Wood Gerber (Avery Aames) http://darylwoodgerber.com/ mystery series “A
Cookbook Nook Mystery” https://www.thecozyreview.com/wreath-between-the-lines/ or Joy Avon’s (aka
Vivian Conroy) https://twitter.com/VivWrites series “A Tea and a Read Mystery.”
https://www.thecozyreview.com/in-peppermint-peril/.
About the Author:
Lauren 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 theater who had the love of storytelling and captivating and holding an audience, her fiction-writing career began to take center stage.
Contact Lauren: http://laurenelliottauthor.com/contact
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