The Vanishing Type
While January snow falls outside in Miracle Springs, North Carolina, Nora Pennington encourages customers to cozy up indoors with a good book, perhaps a classic novel. Even though the shop and her bibliotherapy sessions keep Nora busy during the day, her nights are a little too quiet until Deputy Andrews pulls Nora into the sci-fi section and asks her to help him plan a wedding proposal. And a hiker is found dead.
His bride-to-be, Hester, loves Little Women, and Nora sets to work arranging a special screening at the town’s new movie theater. But right before the deputy pops the question, Nora makes an unsettling discovery; someone has mutilated all her store’s copies of the classic book, The Scarlet Letter, slicing angrily into the pages wherever Hester Prynne’s name is mentioned.
The coincidence disturbs Nora, who’s one of the few in Miracle Springs who knows that Hester gave up a baby for adoption many years ago. Her family heaped shame on her, and Hester still feels so guilty that she hasn’t even told her future husband. But when a dead hiker is found on a trail just outside town, carrying a rare book, the members of the Secret, Book, and Scone Society unearth a connection to Hester’s past. Someone is intent on bringing the past to light, and it’s not just Hester’s relationship at stake but her life.
The Details
Series: A Secret, Book, And Scone Society Novel – Book #5
Author: Ellery Adams
Genre/Category: Cozy – Bookstore/Woman Sleuth
Publisher: Kensington Cozies
ISBN: 1496726448
Page Count: 304
Rating: 
The Review
I have enjoyed this series since book one. The Vanishing Type, book five, has everything fans expect and more. A hiker is found dead, and a classic novel is found in his pocket. Nora finds a connection to her friend and sets her sights on solving the death and finding out who has it out for Nathaniel Hawthorne’s books.
Our favorite characters are back in this latest addition to the “A Secret, Book, And Scone Society” series. Nora is serving up books that inspire and sticking her nose into trouble. The town is picture-perfect as snow falls in Miricle Springs. Readers flock to the bookshop to pick up a good book to cozy up to by the fire. No one thought that someone would be out hiking in this weather or that a hiker would be found dead, murdered. When Nora finds a collection of classic Hawthorn books defaced in her shop, and all of them have a connection with Hester, she isn’t sure what to make of it but knows it can’t be good.
It takes a while to find suspects in the hiker’s death, but when the suspects become known, readers will be floored. Evidence is scarce, and even the classic book found in the victim’s coat doesn’t help uncover a murderer until the end. The action is good, and the story pace is just right. Fans will either solve the mystery very quickly or not until the very end; there is no in-between. But no matter when they figure out the killer’s identity and put together all of the clues that lead to other mysteries, readers will find a solution that will make them happy and keep them wanting more from this series.
I found the mystery easy to figure out once the initial plot was presented. It didn’t take long for me to connect the hiker with the destruction of the classic novels or why and by whom he was killed. That said, it was fun to finish the book and find out I was right. The Vanishing Type is easy to read and to like, with a twist on an old theme that keeps the secret book and scone society from becoming just another bookshop cozy. I look forward to the next installment.
The Author
Ellery Adams has written over thirty novels and can’t imagine spending a day away from the keyboard. Ms. Adams, a Native New Yorker, has had a lifelong love affair with stories, food, rescue animals, and large bodies of water. When not working on her next novel, Ellery enjoys baking, gardening, and spoiling her three cats, and wastes far too much time on Pinterest. She lives with her husband and two children (aka the Trolls) in central North Carolina.
Other books in this series that readers will enjoy include The Book Of Candlelight and, of course, the one that started it all, The Secret, Book & Scone Society.
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