Death on the Shelf discussion

I know it's a little early, but the library has this book on order, and I put it on hold. Then I found it's available both as ebook and audio through Hoopla. It's Little Bookshop of Murder by Maggie Blackburn. Take a look and let me know what you think. I'll continue looking for other possibilities, or if anyone has a suggestion, I'd love to hear it. Thanks!

Sounds like a fun one to me. The cozier the better around the holidays.

Greg is this our November book officially?

Yes, this will be the book for November. I’ll read it again, just because I’ve finished 5 or 6 since I read it. It is available on Hoopla as ebook and downloadable audio, and the library has a print copy on order. Not sure when that will be in though.

Sounds good thanks

I'm posting this early because I may not be here on the 17th. It contains spoilers, so beware!




I thought this was more of an advertisement for romance books than a mystery.
It was not a romance, however, because it missed every opportunity for Summer to fall in love. Would it be the handsome but suspicious high school English teacher or the handsome, caring fire chief? It was neither. It was no one.
It was not a mystery, however, in the traditional sense. It’s true that Summer’s mother died mysteriously, but a lot of the book was more about not pursuing the obvious leads to trying to solve the mystery. Did we question Doris? No, because she was so upset at Hildy’s death. Did we check the safety deposit box for clues? Or anything? We questioned people who were with Hildy before her death, we included some as suspects and eliminated others, We waited and waited for the autopsy results, then waited for the doctor to get back from a fishing trip to look at them. Turns out it was a crime of jealousy, but why did the jealous wife send anonymous notes exhorting Hildy to sell the bookstore? How would that solve the problem? After dispatching Summer’s mother, why would she continue to try to harm Summer, who wasn’t coming on to her husband (as far as we know)?
Meanwhile, we have trumped up drama with the neighbor’s cat playing a role to pose a pretend threat, we have a spreadsheet that doesn’t add up to pose another. Both are red herring bumps in the plot. It all seemed like filler to me, to add pages to a meandering novel. A witchy woman friend of Hildy’s gives an ominous warning. The first edition books are stolen from the bookstore. Why would the murder suspect do this? This plot had so much spinning of wheels that I knew I was in the midst of a muddy mess.
There was another mystery – who was Summer’s father – but it was solved by sheer coincidence.
And what WAS in that safe deposit box? The world may never know. Did I miss that?
But we did learn, over and over, that romance novels were better than ever.
I confess, this book did offer one surprise. I thought Summer would encounter a spider in this story, that a spider might play an important role. Did I miss that, too?

From Linda:

The Little Bookshop of Murder was a fluffy, lightweight mystery plot but I stuck with it and I had no objection to the change of pace. The characters were a bit unrealistic in that they were providing lots of free labor with the bookstore chores. I thought the central members of the club were just a bit too chummy to be real. I did like the beachfront setting, however.

Did anyone try the Mermaid Pie recipe?

I would rate this book with three stars.

Things have been a little hectic for me recently, and today (of course!) is the first day of the Indiana Library Federation's annual conference. It's being done virtually, like everything else this year, but I hope to be able to get some stuff done here, too.

Honestly, this wasn't my favorite book of the year, although it wasn't the worst I read, either. I'd say about average. I do like most cozies, so I knew what to expect. I was also fine with the romance side, since I've come to expect that in cozies published in the last 10 years or so. Not terribly surprised that it wasn't resolved. I think that's a carryover from television, where a lot of programs build up and prolong romantic tension to attract viewers' attention. I'm sure it'll be taken care of in a later installment, since I think this is definitely a first in a series.

I thought the paranormal aspect was fine, although I feel others have done it better. Maybe I'm just more used to vampires, ghosts and shifters in my paranormal cozies, though.

As Ben pointed out, a number of plot points felt confusing to me. I'm not sure if they were left intentionally unresolved for a later volume or what. I did feel that the arachnophobia thing was overplayed. But then, spiders don't really scare me. One thing that did bother me, and it may be due to my misreading of the book, is that the setting never really felt to me like North Carolina. It had more of a New England feel to me. As I said, could be my own reading and no fault of the author's.

A lot of the characters felt a little unformed to me. But that's the case with quite a few modern cozies, so I was willing to overlook it. Surprisingly, I did figure out who the murderer was (although not the reason). It kind of surprised me that the investigating characters didn't pay more attention to here, and chased after red herrings instead.

Overall, a good first effort. I've certainly read worse! I don't recall what rating I gave it when I read it, probably a 4, since that seems to be my default this year. I'll check back in later in case anyone has more comments, and to suggest a couple of possible picks for January 2021 (I really hope it's a better new year than this one has been). Thanks everyone for reading this! I hope we can do some more recent books in the future, and hopefully in person too!

Ben wrote: "From Linda:

The Little Bookshop of Murder was a fluffy, lightweight mystery plot but I stuck with it and I had no objection to the change of pace. The characters were a bit unrealistic in that the..."

I didn't try the pie recipe. I don't bake much myself, but it did sound interesting to me.