A Shakespearean scholar inherits a beachside bookshop–and a murder mystery–in this delightful new cozy series for fans of Kate Carlisle and Ellery Adams.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 … 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.
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Little Bookshop of Murder is a new series featuring Beach Reads Bookshop in a small beach town. Summer Merriweather’s mother has died and Summer has returned home for the funeral. Her mother, HIldy has always been super healthy and when Summer discovers threatening notes, she wonders if her mother was murdered. She, her aunt and cousin and her mother’s best friends begin to do some sleuthing. The police are not helpful as they feel it was a simple heart attack.
Summer is not an easy character to like. She is a Shakespearean professor who detests romance novels. Beach Reads is all about romance novels and Summer is embarrassed by it all. I did like the other characters, family and old friends of Summer’s mom who were part of a book club and helped in the store.
The murderer was fairly easy to guess as well as the reason. There may be a love interest for Summer but it seems to dry up. There are a few other things that are a bit incongruous or not explained. and the ending was a bit pat.
I did warm up to Summer by the end of the book as she comes to appreciate the town and her friends and family and even romance novels!
I requested and received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley. However, the opinions expressed are my own.
Little Bookshop Of Murder is the first book in the Beach Reads Mystery series written by Maggie Blackburn.
Summer Merriweather is facing good and bad times in her life right now. The bad news is that she has to return to her family home on St. Brigid’s Island, NC, for her mother’s funeral. Her mother had been in good health, and death has been called a heart attack. At least she is on a sabbatical as a professor of Shakespeare at a Virginia university.
Summer’s mother was the owner of Beach Reads, a bookstore that carries mainly romance books, summer’s least favorite genre. Summer wants to get the store ready to sell, and when she starts going, her mother’s papers finds evidence that her mother has recently received threats on her life. When she approaches the police chief with this evidence, he claims it’s not enough to investigate. A few years ago, Summer had left his son at the altar, which is perhaps why he is unwilling to help, so she enlists some of her mother’s friend to learn just how her mother had died.
Summer seeks out her mother’s friends to help her to learn if her mother was, in fact, a victim of murder. After a fire at her mother’s home, the fire chief says the fire was a case of arson and agrees to help with her investigation.
I was hoping to like this book, the story was interesting and moved at a good pace, but I just couldn’t get to like any of the characters.
An absolutely delightful novel about family, old friends and murder in a cozy beach town. Though the author gave ample clues, leading me to the identity of the murderer early in the book, it didn’t spoil the story for me. The plot is rock solid, the characters endearing and the writing top notch. Easily one of the best books I’ve read recently. I received this book free and chose to make a voluntary, unbiased review.
I love books about bookstores! And when you add a mystery component to the story, it gets even better. The author does a great job of developing the characters and providing lots of intrigue to keep you guessing who committed the crimes.
I have to admit that the main character, Summer, got on my nerves with her snobby attitude about the books sold in her mother’s beachside bookstore. Just because she is a fan of the “classics” does not mean everyone else should only want to read that type of book. So just chill and encourage people to read! Period!
I loved the family relationships and the love and care that the women shared with each other. Such a wonderful community environment.
Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
Loved this story and the characters in it. It was fun and interesting to watch Summer going through the different emotions she was feeling. I think she learned a lot about herself in the process. Thank goodness she had her Aunt Agatha, cousin Piper and niece Mia to help her. How much fun would it be to hang out with these folks? Of course, we can’t forget the Mermaid Pie Book Club members. How awesome that Hildy had these wonderful friends. This is book one in what I hope is a long series. I think we have much more to learn about the folks of St. Brigid and I can’t wait. I received this book from NetGalley, but my opinion is my own.
Cozy Mystery on a Coastal Island
This story has many neat things going for it. It takes place on a Coastal Island which has street vendors, an arcade, and is not overly developed. It features a group of women of all ages and all stereotypes. From hippie-witches to University professors, they all share a love of books and love of a deceased bookseller. I read an Advanced Readers Copy that still needs a lot of work. It won’t be published for 3 months so I am sure that they will work out the bugs. The story has a lot of promise and should be a great read. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.
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.
I loved the premise of the book, but the actual story felt flat.. The characters are quirky. For instance, Summer has a huge fear of spiders, and one of Hildy’s friends as flower tattoos all over. And then there’s Mr. Darcy, Hildy’s parrot. He slips cuddled up with Summer. The story was entertaining and easy to read. Now for what I didn’t like. I know this s a galley version but there were misspellings, wrong names used, and clues given and then the author appears to have forgotten them.. Also, I thought the murderer was pretty obvious, however, there were multiple suspects but the characters didn’t figure the murderer out until at the very end.. This was the biggest reason for the 3 star rating.
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and offer my honest opinion of this book.
Little Bookshop of Murder begins with estranged daughter, Summer, returning to the beach town where she had grown up to attend her mother’s funeral. The story covers Summer’s insistence that her otherwise healthy mother was murdered and her insistence on interviewing all of her mom’s friends in order to find the killer. That part of the story was really slow and she didn’t have any convincing motives until the last couple chapters of the book. There were also too many aspects of the case that were difficult to follow or didn’t add up. More intriguing was the relationship between Summer and her mom. Summer has to come to terms with her mom’s death and that she hadn’t made things right between them before up and leaving. A running gag through the book was Summer’s mom’s love of romance novels and Summer’s love of classic literature which her mom refused to carry in her shop. More fun was Summer reading the book her mom had been reading for the book club and realizing she might actually like romance novels after all despite her abiding love for Shakespeare.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and have reviewed it willingly.
This is the first book in the Beach Reads Mystery by author Maggie Blackburn. I have read a number of series by this author that she writes under another name, so I was excited to pick up this new series about a book store the specializes in beach reads. I think the series shows promise with some tweaks along the way. To start with, it is an easy read and has a classic cozy mystery setting. I struggled with two areas – the main character and the mystery. First off, the main character, Summer Merriweather. She was difficult to like at the beginning. She is very opinionated and judgemental, which is not like the characters this author usually writes. I think that more readers would warm to Summer if there is a softening of her judgemental tone, along with a softening of the chip she carries on her shoulder about portions of her childhood on the island. I liked her Aunt Agatha, cousin Piper and Piper’s daughter Mia. They all added dimension to the story. I also like the group of her mother’s friends in the book club and think they could go a long way in softening Summer’s personality traits.
The second issue I had was with the mystery. In my opinion, I didn’t find the mystery to be all that difficult. For me (who normally is always left guessing until the reveal) I figured out who the killer was about the 1/2 point of the book. When the killer’s motive was revealed and the end of the story, I thought it was weak and didn’t really make a lot of sense to me.
Given my history with this author, I really wanted to fall in love with this book. That just wasn’t the case. It felt off from her typical writing under her pen name and not what I am used to from her. With some tweaking and reworking of the main character and a stronger mystery, I think this series could work for more readers.
I voluntarily read a digital advanced review copy provided to me by the publisher, Crooked Lane Books, through Netgalley. All opinions expressed are my own.
amateur-sleuth, professor, murder, arson, theft, family-dynamics, friendship, small-town, small-business, law-enforcement
Summer is a Shakespearean scholar and professor who has returned to her former home on a North Carolina island to bury her mother who died totally unexpectedly. At her mother’s bookshop she meets some of the people who meant much to her as well as her own aunt and cousins. The police call the death a coronary, but there are inconsistencies including threatening notes followed by a burglary at the shop, arson at the house while Summer sleeps, and later she was pushed and sustained a severe concussion. The police chief has a closed mind on the subject and the tox screen seems to take forever. Meanwhile Summer has a good deal of angst about so many things including her career.
The mystery is quite well done, and the supporting characters are very well done. It’s the main character who seems a little two-dimensional, partly because most non-academics don’t realize the importance of things like Publish or Perish or how difficult things can still be for a woman in a field dominated by men. And still, image is everything in Academia.
Basically, I really liked it!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley. Thank you!
Brigid’s Island, North Carolina has lost one of their most likeable residents. Hildy Merriweather, owner of Beach Reads known for their romances and cozy mysterys will be missed by all but one. This one person is the person who murdered her. Her daughter, Professor Summer Merriweather, Shakespearean literature professor at a Virginia University in Stauton, Virigina, swore she would not return to Brigid’s Island after she graduated from high school. However when she received news of her Mother’s death, she knew she must return for her Mother’s funeral and to handle all other matters. When the death is attributed to a heart attack, Summer knew this couldn’t be true since Hildy was one of the healthiest individuals anyone could know. Trying to convine the Chief of Police that Hildy was murdered. It doesn’t help since Summer had jilted her son who was her fiance, an he was left at the altar. Summer has made it her mission to find the person who murdered her Mother while deciding what she was going to do with the estate and especially the Beach Reads bookstore.
The characters in this book are wonderfully developed as well as the plot. You will feel the pull to love Summer and her frustration of not just dealing with the loss of her Mother but also her career.
Little Bookshop of Murder by Maggie Blackburn is the first in a new series of cozy mysteries set in a coastal town in NC.
Summer Merriweather is the main female character that has come home to help take over her mother’s bookstore after her sudden death. Of course, things are not as they initially appear, and Summer has to recruit some of her mother’s friends to help solve the mystery and find out what really happened to her mother.
I do love myself a good cozy mystery, however there were several “rough” aspects to this first installment.
The plot had promise, however the mystery of the culprit was not hard to figure out. The main female character, Summer, was quite uppity, and I was not impressed with her spout-age of her Phd numerous times. She seemed to simmer down towards the end of the book, though. The ending was also a little unsatisfying, but not in a good way. I understand about the time- appropriate cliff-hangers in books, however I was not too impressed with this one.
With all that being said, it still was not a bad book, I liked the cast of characters and the location, and I will read the next book in the series to see if things shake out and settle down. It definitely has potential.
3.5/5 stars