Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9780425219584
Berkley Publishing
271 Pages
$7.59; $7.99 Amazon
April 1, 2008
⭐⭐
When she moved to Stoneham, city-slicker Tricia Miles was met with friendly faces. And when she opened her mystery bookstore, she was met with friendly competition. But when she finds Doris Gleason dead in her own cookbook store, killed with a kitchen knife, the atmosphere seems more cutthroat than cordial. Someone wanted to get their hands on the rare cookbook that Doris had recently purchased -- and the locals think that someone is Tricia. To clear her name, Tricia will have to take a page out of one of her own mysteries -- and hunt down someone who isn't killing by the book...
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Tricia Miles moved to Stoneham, New Hampshire, to open a mystery bookstore, Haven't Got A Clue, after her marriage broke up. While there are plenty of tourists to keep the store booming, her next-door neighbor is a bust. Doris Gleason owns The Cookery, a cookbook store, and is after Tricia to help her stand off against their landlord, Bob Kelly, who is raising Doris's rates. But Tricia, whose lease isn't up for a couple of years, refuses, leaving Doris fuming.
Then Tricia gets a call from her sister Angelica, a much-married pain in the you-know-what who's decided to visit her unannounced. While she isn't relishing Angelica's visit, she knows she'll have to deal with it. Driving Angelica back to her store that night, she sees a fire in The Cookery and tells Angelica to dial 9-1-1 while she goes to put out the fire and see if Doris is in the store. She is, indeed -- Doris is lying with a kitchen knife to her back.
Now Angelica wants to stay in town and the sheriff wants to nail her for Doris's murder, no matter what information Tricia gives her to point her in another direction. It's obvious that if Tricia wants to stay out of the slammer, she's going to have to slam the door on a killer herself...
This is an older book, and the first in the series. It didn't really impress me, and I'm not sorry that I haven't made any time to read this author before. I will tell you why below:
First off, Tricia has a problem with weight. As in other people being overweight. She mentions several times about how her sister was once fat, and how the sheriff is fat. We get it. You don't like fat people. Then, there's an unkind comment that was made which shouldn't have been, considering it would have been offensive even when this book was written. I am assuming that the author made the comment to show how offensive Doris was as a person, which is why I hope it was said.
I can, sort of, understand why she resents Angelica. Especially since Angelica points out how Tricia was unwanted, and that Angelica was "the star" in the family and the favored one. Repeatedly. That must have made Tricia feel wonderful growing up - knowing her parents didn't want her around because they already had Angelica. No wonder she resents her. I'd probably not want anything to do with this woman, either. Again, especially since Angelica pushes her way into Tricia's life and steamrolls her; not taking into consideration her feelings, her privacy, dislikes Tricia's cat, invites people into Tricia's home without her permission, etc.; and then, just decides she's going to help her run her store. Just like that. Which makes Angelica a unlikable person. There's a very telling scene where Angelica gains something but it devastates someone else (in the same room) and she looks offended that Tricia is trying to comfort the other person. No sympathy at all for the other person. This family is a piece of work.
Tricia, taking all the above into consideration, still doesn't come off very well herself. Aside from the 'fat' thing, she's rather boring. She has very little personality, and leaves her employee to run the store by herself. A lot. I've never thought much of protagonists who claim to own a business but then never spend any time there.
Then there's the mystery itself. It starts at the beginning of the book when Doris is murdered, but it doesn't gain any steam until around the last third of the book, when the clues start pouring in and you can begin to put the pieces together. Oh, yes, there are suspects, but none of them really seem to have a reason to kill the woman until this happens. Then you have that 'aha' moment; you knew who killed Doris; but the 'why' is still there for a few pages more. It doesn't take much after that to put it together.
The ending had a bit of a climax, and I have to say that it wasn't written badly, but I will say that if I had to spend any close quarters with Angelica I'd move. And fast. I don't know if I like punishing myself or not, but unless a book is truly awful, I try to read three in the series before I pass judgment, so I will read the next and see if it gets any better.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0425219585?tag=speculativefic05&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3302568896
More on Lorna Barrett's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/lorna-barrett/
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