Author: Maggie Blackburn
Genre: Mystery
Hardcover; Digital Book (Audiobook Available)
ISBN #: 9781643858326
Crooked Lane Books
336 Pages
$26.99; $12.99 Amazon
October 12, 2021
⭐⭐⭐
There's no place like home for the holidays, even if home is sleepy, beachside Brigid's Island, NC. During this season for giving, the town wakes up to a welcome throng of shoppers -- and Beach Reads is no exception. But bookseller Summer Merriwether's Christmas cheer turns to cringing fear when she uncovers a deadly secret about her late mother -- a secret someone will kill to keep.
When the local library hosts a cozy mystery panel discussion, Summer learns that one of the authors on the panel based her book on an actual murder that shook Brigid's Island thirty-five years before. Worse, she soon learns that her dearly missed mother, Hildy, took a disturbingly deep interest in the case, going so far as to collect clippings and keep a journal of the dark doings. This doesn't jibe with Summer's memories of her usually cheery mother at all.
Tidings get worse when Summer learns of her long-lost biological family's involvement in the crime...and still worse when the life of the book's author is threatened. With the help of Hildy's plucky book club, Summer puts her scholarly smarts to work on protecting the cozy author and solving the decades-old murder.
But this ghost from Christmas past may still be deadly in the present, and if she can't find the killer. Summer's future will be brief.
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Summer Merriwether returned home after ten years for her mother's funeral, and learned that she'd left her precious bookstore to her daughter. Summer didn't want it, but in the months following, she still hasn't decided whether she's going to keep it or return to her job at the university. She's also learned that she has half-siblings who are Egyptian and very rich. But when her half-brother Sam hands her a box of photos he'd found of her mother and father together, she still hasn't been able to go through it. But then another box is found at the bookstore, which contains a scrapbook and newspaper clippings of a murder that occurred over thirty years ago, and had ties to her father's family.
To make matters worse, she learns that one of the cozy authors visiting has based her latest book on the murder. Sure, she's not written about the murder itself, but she's taken the bones of the case and used her own speculations -- and personal research -- to write the book, and it turns out someone isn't happy. Since she's received death threats, she figures the safest place to stay will be at Summer's cottage. At least until someone keeps breaking in and takes the box of photos. But why? And why terrorize the author? Unless someone has something they want to keep hidden...like murder...
This is the second book in the series, and while I thought it was better than the first, it still has issues as far as I'm concerned. There's a part of the book in which Summer stated that she came home to see her mother last year for Christmas, but in the previous book she stated she hadn't been home for ten years. Also, she states as how much she misses her mother, but in the last book their relationship was contentious, and for some reason or other she didn't want any part of her previous life.
Also, this book might take place at Christmas, but there is very little about the holiday. Yes, there is decorating, and mention of vegan cookies (ugh), but there is no feel for Christmas, just as there is no feel for the characters.
Summer is all about Summer. Much of the book is about Summer's dissecting her thoughts (the woman seriously needs a therapist) and while she has an irrational fear of spiders (having the fear is alright, but wearing a nylon mask?) it doesn't bother me much because all of Ms. Blackburn's main characters have an emotional, physical, or psychological issue. (I am including the author's books written as Mollie Cox Bryan, too -- so I wasn't surprised when I discovered Summer's problem).
As I've stated in my last review, there are no strong male characters in the book, and I truly am surprised Cash showed up at all. Piper's husband was a surprise -- he wasn't even mentioned in the last book, and I had no idea she was married. He was given exactly one sentence in this book, so he may as well have been wallpaper. The secondary characters aren't really that interesting, and the little snit that Piper had didn't even make sense (read the book and you will know).
However, the writing was good, and as we already know, Summer will solve everything to all its satisfaction, and the climax was interesting, to say the least. The book isn't a bad book at all; and I will read the next in the series to see if Summer has softened at all.
I received an advance copy from the publisher and NetGalley but this in no way influenced my review.
More on Maggie Blackburn's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/maggie-blackburn/
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