Book 66, 2023

A Page Marked for Murder by Lauren Elliott

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I brought my work book home yesterday and finished it last night. It was A Page Marked for Murder by Lauren Elliott, and it's the 5th installment in the "Beyond the Page Bookstore" mystery series. The main character is Addie Greyborne, who owns the local book shop.

The town is gearing up for its annual Fire and Ice festival, which is keeping Addie busy. In addition to running her book store, she's also dog sitting for a friend who's in the hospital. While visiting the woman's home to get her some items, Addie notices a valuable first edition of The Secret Garden. That's not the only discovery she makes. Later, Addie finds a dead body behind the bakery next to her own store. The bakery owner, Martha, was seen arguing with the victim, and she has no alibi for the night he was killed. In the meantime, the rare book has gone missing, and Addie can't help but think the two crimes are related. The police, specifically her ex-boyfriend Marc, aren't interested in Addie's theories. Because people she knows and cares about are impacted by both the murder and the loss of the book, Addie applies herself to some investigating of her own.

This is the first book in this series I've read. While I wasn't floundering, I did feel as though I was missing certain nuances for jumping into the middle. Characterizations were done well, and the plot moved forward at a good pace. If I have a complaint, it's that Addie seemed to spend most of her time investigating. We seldom saw her working. There was a subplot involving Addie's ditzy cousin Kalea, and all I can say is, if she was my cousin and did me that dirty, there would have been two murders in town. I'd also like to put it out there that I figured out the murder weapon long before any of the characters did. Called it!

Favorite line: "What's that face you're making?" // "I just had an idea." // "I'm not sure I like idea-face tonight."

This deserves three and a half stars. Hmmmm...I'm going to go with an average score of three.