Booked for Death: A Booklover’s B&B Mystery by Victoria Gilbert

    I am very excited to find a new mystery series to read.  Every year I try so many.  Some stick while others don’t.  On occasion, I don’t even finish the first book.  Which is why I am happy I was eager to read Booked for Death all the way to the end.                         

    Charlotte Reed, owner of Chapters Bed-and-Breakfast, is holding a special week of events celebrating mystery author Josephine Tey.  The plan is for this to be a fun event.  Which it could have been had guest Lincoln Delamont not been so obnoxious.

    With his obnoxiousness apparent, it should not come as much of a surprise that Lincoln is the one who becomes the murder victim.  No one got along with him.  Not even his wife and daughter.  Everyone involved in the event had a reason to kill Lincoln.  Including Charlotte.

    For Charlotte the reason is blackmail.  Or at least attempted blackmail.  Lincoln insinuated he knew something about Charlotte’s great-aunt Isabella’s past; the woman Charlotte inherited Chapters from.  He declares, if Charlotte does not want this past to get out then … well, you know how this goes with blackmailers.

    Charlotte knows she didn’t kill Lincoln, but she suspects everyone else.  She even wonders about her friends and employees.  People who she never would have considered being murderers before.

    Needing help to sort out this mess, Charlotte turns to her elderly neighbor, Ellen Montgomery.  As they go through the evidence, and as new clues appear, Charlotte discovers there is far more to Ellen than she previously thought.  There is no way Ellen is simply the elderly woman next door.

    Through Ellen, Charlotte also discovers more about Isabella’s past.  A past she certainly never expected.

    In some ways this is one of the most realistic cozy mysteries I have read.  I think most people would struggle with suspecting people they know, yet still feel the need to do so.  In a lot of books, the person looking into the mystery seems to have zero qualms about suspecting someone they have known their entire life.  Or completely dismisses them as a possibility because “they have decided”.  It’s unrealistic to be so certain.  I think most people in this situation would have a little moment of “what if” on the brain.

    Ellen and Isabella’s life stories are also quite different from the other cozy mystery series I have read.  For that I will not give any details because they will ruin a great deal of the book.  All I will say is I look forward to finding out more about their connected past in future books.

    Charlotte’s story is realistic as well.  She is a widow still trying to get her life together.  For the most part she does this very well, although there are her moments of sadness.  She is certainly not ready to be involved with anyone new, which she is honest about.  So often in books, it doesn’t matter how much time has passed over a death or a breakup, the hero or heroine is spontaneously ready to start a new relationship when someone just happens to cross their path.

    That is not real life.  Grieving takes time.  Even when the perfect next person is right in front of you, and you know it, it can take time to be ready to let that person into your life.

    Which is what Charlotte is going through.  She almost has a moment with frequent guest Scott Kepler, but it’s not a moment she’s ready to have.  Then she figures out Scott would be a better match for her friend Julie Rivera anyways.

    This does not mean there won’t be a love interest in the future.  I’m sure there will be at some time.  It’s just a question as to when.

    Or, there may be a surprise twist and Charlotte never gets a love interest.  Not every character in every book has to have one.  And sometimes life just doesn’t work out that way.  For Charlotte, only time will tell if she finds herself in a romantic relationship in the end.

The Sands of Time
Artwork by Kate Dorsey