Murder, Plainly Read: An Amish Quilt Shop Mystery by Isabella Alan

               Here we go again.  Angie Braddock has returned for her fourth book in the Amish Quilt Shop Mystery series.  This time Angie gets talked into running the library book sale.  She isn’t too happy about this as she does still have her own shop to run, but she knows that helping with something like this book sale will be good publicity for her shop.  At least that’s what she thinks until a body is found in the library bookmobile.  With her friend Austina as the main suspect, Angie sets out to find the real killer, all the while wondering if the police have had the true culprit all along.  

                While every case Angie takes on has its difficulties, this one seems to have far more than usual.  That’s because the man who was murdered was the bishop of a very conservative Amish sect.  The likelihood of anyone speaking to Angie is slim.  Not only is she an outsider, but she is also a woman.  Two things Angie does not necessarily have to fight against with the other Amish communities. 

                Something else Angie must deal with is her relationship with the sheriff.  Sheriff Mitchell does not want Angie to investigate this murder, but practically everyone else is asking her to do so.  With so many people pleading for her to clear Austina’s name, Angie does not know how she can refuse.  That leaves her in a quandary of what she should tell Mitchell and what she shouldn’t.  To make matters worse, when Angie does try to tell Mitchell something so he can see she is not trying to hinder his investigation, Mitchell is usually too busy to listen.  That’s why when Mitchell finds out the information from another source, a strain between him and Angie is created, leaving Angie concerned about the strength of their relationship.

                Then there is the board of trustees that Angie must deal with.  The book sale has become so much more than it was originally intended to be.  Now a farmer’s market has joined up with the festivities, which is being held in conjunction with the opening of the new pie factory.  On the surface this does not seem to be a problem as all the participants have agreed to this setup, but the head of the board is upset.  No one went through her first about the addition of the farmer’s market, which she feels was the completely wrong and inappropriate thing to do.  This leads to her holding a meeting and then having a shouting match with another trustee in the middle of Angie’s shop.  Neither one is exactly what Angie needs as she deals with the uncertainty in her relationship and has a murder to solve.  Oh, and her best friend is mad at her too.  There is really nothing else that Angie needs on her plate.

                As much as I like Mitchell, I was very disappointed with how he treated Angie in this book.  He had a tendency to “forget” that Angie called with information and that he was the one who brushed her off.  Then after belittling her by saying Angie should go back to her shop and sew where she belongs, he asks Angie for a big favor.  A favor that involves the care of his son.  And he doesn’t even really ask Angie.  He kind of tells her she’s going to do it.  Hmmm.  Maybe I’m not such a fan of Mitchell anymore.  Now that I think about it, he’s going to have to do some work in the fifth book to convince me that he is the right person for Angie after all.