Booked for Murder is the debut novel by author P.J. Nelson, and is the first book in their Old Juniper Bookstore Mystery series.
Madeline Brimley has returned to the small town of Enigma, Georgia, where she grew up, to take over the small bookstore left to her by her aunt. No sooner does she arrive, than someone sets fire to the gazebo in her back yard, and she starts receiving threatening phone calls. Soon after that, a young woman is killed in the store, and the store set on fire. The question is, was the young woman the real target, or was someone trying to kill Madeline?
I really enjoyed this debut novel, and think the author, and the series, shows a lot of promise.
Written in first person from the point of view of Madeline, the story is engaging, and the characters interesting. My biggest disappointment was that the author killed off one of my favourite characters, but that just made me more invested in finding out how Madeline solved the mystery, and who the culprit was.
Madeline seemed to concentrate, quite early on, investigating people who were after the young woman who was killed, and I thought the author could have muddied the waters more by looking more closely at people who might have wanted to harm Madeline. After all, the young woman was killed after hours in the store, while Madeline slept in the living quarters upstairs. Few, if any, people should have expected the young woman to be sleeping downstairs in the shop.
Unfortunately, it was kind of obvious to me from fairly early on who the culprit was. Funnily enough, they were about the only suspect in the story that Madeline didn’t openly accuse of the murder. This only lead me to believe that my guess was right, and that the author was trying to steer the reader away from them.
I would recommend this novel to any lover of cozy mysteries, although it’s probably slightly darker than some. I will be watching for more books in this series.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Booked for Murder releases on December 10 2024.
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