Book 79, 2016
Oct. 16th, 2016 07:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chez_jaeTonight, I polished off A Novel Way to Die, which is part of author Ali Brandon's "Black Cat Bookshop" mystery series.
Darla needs to hire a new, part-time clerk, but first, any candidate must meet with the approval of Hamlet, the store cat. After scaring off several potential contenders, Hamlet casts his favor on goth teen, Robert. Darla is skeptical, but she hires Robert and soon discovers he's a conscientious employee.
Darla takes a break from shopkeeping to view the brownstone that her possible new love interest, Barry, is renovating with his friend Curt. On the premises, Darla and Barry find Curt dead in the basement. Darla knows it's a matter for the police, but she couldn't help but notice the bloody paw prints near the corpse. Fearing that Hamlet was at the scene of the crime, she begins trying to figure out who would have wanted Curt dead. Hamlet helps out in his own way, knocking particular books off of the shelves as clues. The only thing they seem to have in common is iron.
Good story! The action clipped along at a good pace, and although I had my suspicions, I wasn't sure who the murderer was until quite late in the book. It was fun to see Hamlet's relationship progress with Robert, as well as Robert's interactions with the stuffy store manager, James. I don't like either Barry or police officer Reese as a love interest for Darla, and I'm holding out hope for (the as yet to be met "onscreen") Alex Putin for her.
Favorite lines:
♦ ...her greater concern at the moment was that Mr Fur-covered Land Shark might have decided to seek out yet another hapless would-be employee to terrorize.
♦ "...he's a cat. What did you expect him to do, grab himself a pawful of hand sanitizer and tidy up?"
♦ "I swear he could hear a mouse farting in the next room."
The only knock against the book was the editing. One or two errors can be excused, but I noticed several. Unacceptable in a (supposedly) edited book.
Four stars:
****
Darla needs to hire a new, part-time clerk, but first, any candidate must meet with the approval of Hamlet, the store cat. After scaring off several potential contenders, Hamlet casts his favor on goth teen, Robert. Darla is skeptical, but she hires Robert and soon discovers he's a conscientious employee.
Darla takes a break from shopkeeping to view the brownstone that her possible new love interest, Barry, is renovating with his friend Curt. On the premises, Darla and Barry find Curt dead in the basement. Darla knows it's a matter for the police, but she couldn't help but notice the bloody paw prints near the corpse. Fearing that Hamlet was at the scene of the crime, she begins trying to figure out who would have wanted Curt dead. Hamlet helps out in his own way, knocking particular books off of the shelves as clues. The only thing they seem to have in common is iron.
Good story! The action clipped along at a good pace, and although I had my suspicions, I wasn't sure who the murderer was until quite late in the book. It was fun to see Hamlet's relationship progress with Robert, as well as Robert's interactions with the stuffy store manager, James. I don't like either Barry or police officer Reese as a love interest for Darla, and I'm holding out hope for (the as yet to be met "onscreen") Alex Putin for her.
Favorite lines:
♦ ...her greater concern at the moment was that Mr Fur-covered Land Shark might have decided to seek out yet another hapless would-be employee to terrorize.
♦ "...he's a cat. What did you expect him to do, grab himself a pawful of hand sanitizer and tidy up?"
♦ "I swear he could hear a mouse farting in the next room."
The only knock against the book was the editing. One or two errors can be excused, but I noticed several. Unacceptable in a (supposedly) edited book.
Four stars:
****
