IN SHORT: This clean mystery Book is a light and fun read set in a bookstore.

REVIEW

Sam Washington owns a mystery bookstore in North Harbor, Michigan. When the local library is flooded in a storm, the librarian asks her if a book club can meet in her shop while repairs are completed. She ends up hosting a group of mystery lovers whose leader is a longtime and well-known book critic. And Delia Marshall is not just a book critic: she’s critical and exacting about everything.

In no time at all, Delia has implied she would give a terrible review to Sam’s soon-to-be-published debut novel and said she would sue her over an incident with her two dogs. Not long after that, the horrid woman is dead on the floor of the store.

The police focus on Sam in their investigation, even though Delia ran afoul of plenty of other people, including several in the book club. So Sam has to go into amateur sleuth mode (yet again: this is the eighth book in a series, though I haven’t read any of them) to save herself. She enlists the help of her grandmother, Nana Jo; Nana Jo’s friends from the retirement community; her fiancé; her attorney sister; a friend who’s a police officer but on leave at the moment; and some others.

Though I hadn’t heard of this series before, and this is well into the continuing story, I didn’t feel lost. The author did a good job of making it accessible for new readers. It’s a pleasant group of characters, the mystery is nicely written, and I enjoyed my visit in North Harbor. It’s not particularly memorable, but it’s a good clean mystery book.

RATING

Rated: Mild (almost a none). There’s one use of British profanity. One side character is an older lady who is notoriously busy with boyfriends. She is stopped a few times from saying mild bad words and off-color things about sex. Violence includes a murder (someone just dead on the floor but no details) and a bad person holding a gun on two people.

*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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