Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9780451477453
Berkley Publishing
323 Pages
$7.99; $7.99 Amazon
December 6, 2016
⭐⭐
October in Cascade Springs means tourists are pouring in for the annual Food and Wine Festival, and Daisy hopes to draw those crowds to the store. She asks Violet and the local writing group, the Red Inkers, to give a reading of the works of Edgar Allan Poe in the shop's back garden to entertain the revelers. Everyone eagerly agrees.
Yet their enthusiasm is soon extinguished when Violet discovers one of the writers dead during the event. After the shop magically tells Violet she'll need to rely on Poe's works to solve the murder, she enlists the help of her trusty tuxedo cat, Emerson, and the shop's crow, Faulkner. But they must act fast before someone else's heart beats nevermore...
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Violet returned home after years away to help her grandmother Daisy run the book shop they own, with a magical tree growing right in the center of it. For the most part, she's settled in as the new caretaker of the tree, and is enjoying being home again. Now that October has come around and the Halloween season is near, the writers' group - the Red Inkers - are having a reading of Edgar Allan Poe's works for locals and tourists alike, and all are going to be dressed in period costumes. However, when one of the writers uses Violet's apartment to change into her costume, she never returns. Violet goes looking for her, and finds her on the stairs, dead. After notifying police chief David Rainwater - who happens to be a member of the group and close at hand - Violet does her best to keep everyone calm and right there, since they will need to be questioned. But it also becomes apparent that the woman was murdered, and now they have to find out who hated her enough to want her dead...if only Violet can stay alive long enough for Chief Rainwater to find the culprit...
This is the second book in the series and I really wanted to like it as much as the first, especially since I adore Edgar Allan Poe's writings. However, it fell flat for me. For one, I am honestly worn out with the protagonist dating the police chief, and I was really hoping she'd tend to go in another jdirection (no spoiler there; it's obvious from the beginning she's attracted to the man). Oh, well. Just another series with the MC dating a police officer. No novelty, no loss. Especially since she leads on the ex-boyfriend, who thinks he has a chance with her.
Secondly, Violet has a chance to find out more about her past but it was missed - as if the author wanted to introduce a new character but wasn't sure how to fit that person into the mix and so decided to have them effectively be in a "drive by" situation - you're there and then you're not. It would have been very interesting to see where it was going; but perhaps in later books this will be remedied.
Then, after reading further, it didn't make any sense why the dead woman was in this group of writers, and I'm not saying more than that, but if you read the book you will understand why I do. Also, I didn't feel that the reason she was murdered made any sense at all. It seemed a weak excuse to me. Plus, the murderer disappeared until nearly the end of the book, so we really didn't have any clues to go on. But in the end, this wasn't a bad book, it just wasn't anything that kept me intrigued enough to go on, and it took me a few tries to finish it, which isn't like me since I can usually read a book a day. All in all, I may or may not continue this series, but if it trends in the direction it's going, probably not, which is a pity since I do enjoy this author.
More on Amanda Flower's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/f/amanda-flower/
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