[I received an electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]
Summary
Violet Waverly is the Caretaker for a magical tree located at the center of her bookstore, Charming Books. Women in Violet’s family have been caring for the tree for generations, protecting its secrets. But under Violet’s care, those secrets are in danger.
A private investigator named Joel Redding was in Cascade Springs before investigating a murder, but now he’s back, determined to find out what Violet is hiding. He’s casing her store and following her.
While she’s come to expect their run-ins outside the shop, she doesn’t expect to see him in the middle of a 30 mile bike race. But wearing loafers and street clothes, Redding zooms by her, taking her picture. Only a few minutes later, at the bottom of Breakneck Hill, Redding is dead.
When a copy of Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman is found on him, Violet knows. The shop had given her the same book twice lately. The shop obviously wants her to solve Redding’s murder.
Review
This is book four in the Magical Bookshop Mystery series, my favorite series so far by Amanda Flower. Of the four books in the series so far, I have only known or read the bookstore’s book of choice once. This has never impacted my enjoyment of the series. There’s plenty of Walt Whitman history in the novel as well as an author’s note. While Whitman isn’t a writer I enjoy, I did enjoy the historical pieces here – both real and fictional.
The mystery in this one was solid. I did feel like there was a lot of time spent on Violet searching for, finding and losing the young woman she was trying to help. This started to get old. Violet was far too kind to someone who pushed her away with her words and with her behavior. And the will-she-or-won’t-she over Violet telling the detective about the shop’s secrets, something she started debating in a previous book, also stretched into this book. I was happy to see that plot thread finally settled. I also felt like one piece of the mystery solution wasn’t explained, but it was a minor piece. The solution was solid otherwise – nice and twisty!
Amanda Flower has another book out this month – Matchmaking Can Be Murder. This is the first in a new Amish Matchmaker Mystery series which is a spin off of the Amish Candy Shop series, which I have also enjoyed. I’ll be reviewing that one at the end of the year.