Overall: 🐢🐢🐢
Storyline: ★★★
Writing Style: ★★.5
Character Development: ★★.5
Enjoyment: ★★★
“And with that, the October scene was complete; autumn leaves and bare fields and the ghost of Rose Brimley riding with u in the car on the way home.”
Booked for Murder by P.J. Nelson
The Story:
Madeline Brimley left small town Georgia many years ago to go to college and pursue her dreams on the stage. Her dramatic escapades are many but success has eluded her, leaving her at loose ends. But then she gets word that not only has her beloved, eccentric Aunt Rose passed, but she’s left Madeline her equally eccentric bookstore housed in an old Victorian mansion in the small college town of Enigma. But when she arrives in her beat-up Fiat to claim The Old Juniper Bookstore, and restart her life, Madeline is faced with unexpected challenges. The gazebo in the back yard is set ablaze and a late night caller threatens to burn the whole store down if she doesn’t leave immediately.
But Madeline Brimley, not one to be intimidated, ignores the threats and soldiers on. Until there’s another fire and a murder in the store itself. Now with a cloud of suspicion falling over her, it’s up to Madeline to untangle the skein of secrets and find the killer before she herself is the next victim.
Key Elements:
Cozy Mystery, Small Town, Georgia, Family, Bookstore, Business Owner
More in The Series:
- Book 2: TBD
Why This Rating?
Full disclaimer, I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
This one feels like a trip through home (with a dash of mystery of course). The feeling of the humidity and heat. The pop up storms turning into sunny days and small town gossip circles. There is no such thing as road names in directions. They exist, don’t get me wrong. But, if you don’t have someone giving directions based on landmarks you haven’t talked to a small town person yet. Nothing is secret and everyone knows when something happens regardless of the time of day. This isn’t me saying all little towns in GA are gossip mills or feels like the belly of Hell at some points in the year. I’m sure there are a number of y’all who can also declare that too for your own towns. The beginning of this story and throughout most of it really just spoke to the little towns I grew up in in the south. Also, before I jump into the big part of the review, Enigma, GA IS a real place in this state. And just like she says in the book, feel free to check a map!
The writing for this one was alright. There was smooth conversations amongst the characters. The descriptions were clear and set the scenes fairly well. I think there were a few jokes that fell short for me or maybe came across trying to land. The characters actually comment on them to giving us “tough crowd” moments. Get ready to increase your vocabulary with this one though. There are a few characters who are very well educated and the author scatters their academic vocab words throughout the whole book. So keep a dictionary nearby, because dang. I don’t quite understand times when the author over explained scenes. One that stands out is when a character talks to us about writing a letter to another. It goes on and on about the feelings pouring onto the pages, waiting to hear back, etc. etc. It could very well be my age speaking, but that whole moment just felt like I was being talked down to in that whole monologue. It could have been a quick “you all and this instant gratification” shtick, but instead I read about the entire mailing process, and I mean that literally, for a couple of pages.
I personally found Maddie to be abrupt, rude, and a tad self-centered. She was incredibly quick to judge everyone around her and held tightly onto that judgement until something irrefutable slammed into her. The grudges this woman can hold and create would make a priest proud with the level of dedication she commits. There is very little respect for others and their jobs. One example of this is her interactions with the officer helping her the whole time. He is someone she use to babysit, which means he is forever a kid in her eyes. Fuck what he is capable of as an officer or the fact it’s been 20+ years and he’s a grown adult – wife and family now too. She approaches every conversation and interaction as if he’s a kid and doesn’t know squat and she can do better. And then the moments when she gets all butt hurt over the little stuff! Like when the fire fighter thought she might have caused a fire because he simply doesn’t know her, and it’s his JOB to look at all suspects. Or when people aren’t taking her seriously with the theories she has. Not to mention that she is changing her “absolutely correct” accusations every other phone call. Or how about when someone else is talking, she cuts them off to talk about her thoughts, then tunes out what they are saying, to find out later they were right and she’s upset she was wrong. As a MC, she was annoying to me. I liked that she certainly spoke her mind to everyone. She wasn’t afraid to jump into conversations and just jumped straight into every situation that came up, which was nice – no fluff or waiting around, straight doing. But damn, her nosiness was almost on the aggressive side of poking around. That’s saying something for a mystery novel too.
It was a cute mystery story for sure despite my conflicts with the MC and some writing choices. The fact we got such an in your face murder and so suddenly (not that murder ISN’T sudden) caught me off guard. It didn’t follow the traditional path of a cozy mystery, which isn’t a bad thing – nice change of pace. But to happen to someone who seemed like was a developing character was kind of crazy. It had a good little twist and the reveal wasn’t badly done either. You can probably guess the “who dunnit” once you’ve met everyone, so the ending wasn’t a big surprise. There was of course a romantic interest, but was strictly flirting and seemed to even drift to a close at the end. There were a few conversations that never concluded and I was hung up on them – there’s a joke the reverend kept trying to tell us half of the book that we never got the punch line and who the heck Faye is/was/who knows. So, that complaint is probably is probably putting me in minority opinion there. I am absolutely a person who gets caught on uncompleted conversations, especially if they keep continuously popping up and snagging my attention. Overall, I’m quite happy that I gave this one a chance and read it. If you are looking for a little mystery novel to read, I’d say give it a try. It at least gives you a little look into small town life and has a decent mystery scooting along in the background.
Time to get lost in the next story!
