Every Trick in the Book (A Novel Idea Mystery #2)

Author:  Lucy Arlington
Genre:  Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN:  9780425251676
Berkley Publishing
304 Pages
$7.55; $7.99 Amazon
February 5, 2013

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Lila Wilkins has it all: the home of her dreams in he charming town of Inspiration Valley, North Carolina; a perfect police officer boyfriend; and a new job she absolutely loves.  At the Book and Author Festival, which is sponsored by the Novel Idea Literary Agency, Lila expects to discover some talented new authors, but what she finds instead is the body of an editor to whom she bears an eerie resemblance.

Trouble is, the editor’s death isn’t the only literary murder taking place.  Soon a blossoming author is also killed, and Lila has a gut feeling that the two murders are linked.  Now she must hunt down the dark figure who killed these women - and to her surprise, she just mind find the clues hidden in a manuscript...

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Lila Wilkins finally has the life she’s been dreaming of - a job at a literary agency, a new home, and a new boyfriend.  She should be content, but she’s not.  She’s worried about her son Trey whom she’s allowed to live in a commune, hoping he’ll want to eventually go to college.  But she has a lot on her plate right now; the agency is hosting a book and author festival and Lila is going to be busy for the weekend.

What she doesn’t expect is to come face-to-face with someone who resembles her so closely they could almost be twins.  The woman, Melissa Plume, is a New York editor who’s attending in the hopes of finding a new author or two.  But when an ominously menacing man is staring at Lila, and just as suddenly places a raven feather on her desk, she’s shaken slightly and wondering what it’s all about.

When she learns later that Melissa has been murdered, she’s sure it’s the strange man, and she’s also sure she knows his identity.  But if she does, will she chase after him and only put herself in danger?  Lila’s sense of justice comes to the forefront, but unfortunately, the killing is quite over yet...

This is the second book in the series, and it’s barely improved over the first.  Lila is a contradiction in herself:  in one scene, she’s hiding in a closet from a killer, and in the next she’s convinced her friend Makayla to go find a killer.  Who does that?  Lila is practically hysterical through the entire book, and I was beginning to wonder if she’s not better suited for reading childrens’ books since she obviously doesn’t have the temperament to read mysteries of any kind.  They seem to set her off in imagining things.

Then again, there’s the issue of Trey: in the last book, Lila happily sent him off to live in a commune, even though he’s only seventeen, but when it turns out that there are nefarious dealings going on in that commune, she wants him out of there.  Gee, do you think if she had said no in the first place there never would be any problem with her worrying about him?

Why the murders occurred didn't make any sense to me, and it's in a spoiler below (Beware!  It contains the reason why the people were murdered):

I understand that he felt anger, but what good did it do to kill a woman who may not even have remembered him (Melissa)? And he thought it was perfectly fine to kill Tilly and leave her children motherless after what he'd gone through himself? This goes way past any pain he felt, and I don't think the fact he had Juvenile Diabetes would turn him into a killer. Many, many people have this disease and I've never heard of a single one who killed their parents because of it. It didn't make sense to me; yes, he ha a terrible life, but so do many others and they rise above that - they don't turn into serial killers.

Which brings us back to the fact of her almost-boyfriend.  I say ‘almost’ because the only time they’re spending together is when she’s calling him to save her from something and he kisses or hugs her.  I would guess that cops don’t really do that unless it’s a dire situation (like she’s just been rescued from a burning building).  Every single time they’re practically making out.  But then again, I don’t understand why Dunston doesn’t have a homicide division and regular cops investigate murders...they wouldn’t; they’d import detectives from other close townships.   So why, oh, why, is a street cop acting like a homicide cop and running an investigation?  As it is, he’s a not-homicide-cop heading an investigation; making out with his girlfriend every time he sees her; allowing her to see confidential information; and allowing her to be part of the investigation.  Okay, then...

I would have enjoyed liking Lila more, but she just goes around investigating the murders without any real reason to do so:  it wasn't a friend or relative, it never impacted her life in any way; she just seems to be extremely nosy and wants to play detective.  She also rarely goes to work and when she does she finds a reason to either get coffee or leave altogether.  Does she really want this job or does she want to become a police officer?  Unfortunately, this book had too many problems and too many unbelievable scenarios.  Perhaps the next will be better.

https://www.amazon.com/Every-Trick-Book-Novel-Mystery/dp/0425251675/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2397452198

More on Lucy Arlington's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/a/lucy-arlington/