Murder in the First Edition
Kindle Edition, 304 pages
Published September 24th 2019 by Kensington
Goodreads synopsis:
Addie Greyborne is preparing for the holidays at her bookstore in seaside New England--but a winter storm is coming, in more ways than one . . .
Addie's getting into the spirit for the upcoming Charity Auction—especially since she's got an 1843 copy of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol to donate. Her former colleagues at the Boston Public Library have confirmed that its worth runs toward the high five figures, which should help with the new pediatric wing. Her mood darkens, though, when a visitor from the past appears—Jonathan Hemingway, the father of her late fiancé. His presence stirs up sad memories for Addie, but also has her fuming when Jonathan, true to his womanizing ways, runs off for a lunchtime liaison with Teresa Lang, who's in charge of the auction.
Soon after, Addie heads to Teresa's office at the hospital—and finds the poor woman's dead body. What she doesn't find is her valuable first edition. What sort of Scrooge would steal from sick children and commit murder in the process? As a Nor'easter bears down and a mystery emerges about Jonathan's past, Addie must find out if she can appraise people's motives and characters as well as she can appraise rare books . . .
***
5 Stars
This is the third book in the Beyond the Page Bookstore mystery by Lauren Elliott.
Wow, talk about an angsty cozy mystery. All the romantic leads were acting sort of crazy in that I’m still emotionally in high school sort of way. The sheriff, Marc and Addie’s “friend” from the hospital, Simon, were really on a roll in this story. It sort of took all my focus off of the main mystery as I pondered what in the heck was wrong with both of them. Then in the end Marc’s sister laid all the blame on Addie’s lack of romance onto her which I thought was not only wrong but rude.
Addie lamented for a lot of the story about Jonathan Hemingway, her dead husband’s father. She received a bit of crap about her theories concerning him during the course of the story. I felt vindicated for her in the end when his true agenda was revealed.
I was all emotional while reading this. The mystery hit me in one way while the romance hit me in an entirely opposite way. I felt pulled at the seams. It takes a great author to accomplish that. I felt sick when the book Addie had donated not only went missing but went missing after she realized it was worth $60,000!! I had no clue who could have killed Teresa. Marc seemed to thwart Addie at every turn and wouldn’t even listen to anything she was saying which seemed to tick me off more than anything. I wanted to be Addie’s cheerleader since that role wasn’t filled to my satisfaction. Addie needed a best friend who wasn’t as waffly in her dedication.
If you are all about the mystery, definitely read this. If you want some angsty romance in your cozy, read this as well. It really hit all the bases for me. I loved every minute of it.
Highly recommended.
I received this as an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) in return for an honest review. I thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this title.
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