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3.33 AVERAGE
3.33 AVERAGE
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
An easy read mystery that I whizzed through. I would read other books by the same author. There were no stand out bits in the book for me.
medium-paced
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
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I would like to thank Netgalley and Boldwood Books for an advance copy of Murder in the Bookshop. This is the first novel of the Miss Merrill and Aunt Violet Mysteries, set in London in 1915.
For a first book in a series, the book was pretty good. Both Hannah Merrill and her Aunt Violet are believers of suffrage, despite what Hannah’s parents wish for her. She’s moved to London to help her aunt run a bookshop she acquired instead of settling for marriage and babies like her sister. She had reluctantly agreed to marry her friend, Gerald, as he headed off to war, but was killed in battle, letting her off the hook, so-to-speak.
Unfortunately for Hannah, one morning she arrives at the store to find her best friend, Lily-Anne, stabbed to death, with Hannah’s own knife. Besides being terribly upset about her friend’s murder, she realizes she’s a prime suspect given the locale and murder weapon. So she decides to do some sleuthing of her own in order to find out her best friend’s killer.
There’s a cast of characters introduced in the book whom I’m sure will make future appearances in the books. Despite having been engaged to Gerald, it is really Darius to whom she pined for, but now he is engaged to an utterly loathsome uppity woman. One thing I did note, despite this being a Miss Merrill and Aunt Violet mystery is that Violet is absent for about the first half of the book. When she appears, the pages light up. She’s a great character, hanging out with the leading suffragists of the day, and helping her niece solve the mystery of Lily-Anne’s death, too.
I’ve read a lot of cozy mysteries set in the days leading up to the Great War, and the days after, but never smack dab in the middle of WWI. It makes for a unique setting, with the horrible women giving men and boys who stay home feathers to accuse them of being cowardly. In this book, it’s a 15-year-old boy who is big for his age who works at the bookstore who is targeted. There’s also a subplot about German spies, and of course, the awful air raids come into play in this book as they did in real life.
I look forward to future volumes of this series, and hopefully future volumes will have Hannah and Violet interacting even more. Highly recommend!
I would like to thank Netgalley and Boldwood Books for an advance copy of Murder in the Bookshop. This is the first novel of the Miss Merrill and Aunt Violet Mysteries, set in London in 1915.
For a first book in a series, the book was pretty good. Both Hannah Merrill and her Aunt Violet are believers of suffrage, despite what Hannah’s parents wish for her. She’s moved to London to help her aunt run a bookshop she acquired instead of settling for marriage and babies like her sister. She had reluctantly agreed to marry her friend, Gerald, as he headed off to war, but was killed in battle, letting her off the hook, so-to-speak.
Unfortunately for Hannah, one morning she arrives at the store to find her best friend, Lily-Anne, stabbed to death, with Hannah’s own knife. Besides being terribly upset about her friend’s murder, she realizes she’s a prime suspect given the locale and murder weapon. So she decides to do some sleuthing of her own in order to find out her best friend’s killer.
There’s a cast of characters introduced in the book whom I’m sure will make future appearances in the books. Despite having been engaged to Gerald, it is really Darius to whom she pined for, but now he is engaged to an utterly loathsome uppity woman. One thing I did note, despite this being a Miss Merrill and Aunt Violet mystery is that Violet is absent for about the first half of the book. When she appears, the pages light up. She’s a great character, hanging out with the leading suffragists of the day, and helping her niece solve the mystery of Lily-Anne’s death, too.
I’ve read a lot of cozy mysteries set in the days leading up to the Great War, and the days after, but never smack dab in the middle of WWI. It makes for a unique setting, with the horrible women giving men and boys who stay home feathers to accuse them of being cowardly. In this book, it’s a 15-year-old boy who is big for his age who works at the bookstore who is targeted. There’s also a subplot about German spies, and of course, the awful air raids come into play in this book as they did in real life.
I look forward to future volumes of this series, and hopefully future volumes will have Hannah and Violet interacting even more. Highly recommend!
It was enjoyable, with some good characters, although nothing too memorable.
After her fiancé dies in the war, Hannah moves to a house in London, much to the consternation of her wealthy parents. It’s 1915, and unmarried women don’t live by themselves. To limit her family’s complaints, Hannah’s flirty, suffragette Aunt Violet moves in with her. This only somewhat mitigates the problem, as there are concerns about Violet’s suffragette activities and her relationship with a female friend.
Violet owns a bookshop, and Hanna works there, or more accurately, is thwarted at every turn by Monty Carstairs, the store manager, who refuses to listen to any ideas Hannah puts forth to promote customer interest and sales.
When Hannah finds erotic postcards in Monty’s desk, she finally has the ammunition she needs to fire him, and become manager. Archie, the boy who has apprenticed at the shop, is happy Monty is gone, and Archie helps Hannah clean and reconfigure the shop.
The next day, coming in early, she finds her good friend Lily-Anne murdered, and this impels Hannah to find out who killed her friend because she feels the stern police inspector Farrell isn’t doing enough.
This sets off a chain of actions that result in Hannah finding out upsetting things about
-Lily-Anne
-Hannah’s deceased fiancé
-Monty
-how easily opiates can be procured and how prevalent drug addiction is, and
-Someone of her acquaintance possibly committing treason for the Germans.
I liked the premise of this, but kept finding myself irritated with Hannah, who keeps evidence to herself, and generally stumbles and bumbles her way around, then gets annoyed when she discovers Farrell is often ahead of her, and that he and her interesting aunt are getting involved. Hannah also pines after a friend who is engaged to another woman. I found him irritating also despite the author wanting readers to love him.
I would actually read more if Violet and Farrell’s roles were increased and Darius, Hannah’s love, were written out.
Thank you to Netgalley and to Boldwood Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.
Violet owns a bookshop, and Hanna works there, or more accurately, is thwarted at every turn by Monty Carstairs, the store manager, who refuses to listen to any ideas Hannah puts forth to promote customer interest and sales.
When Hannah finds erotic postcards in Monty’s desk, she finally has the ammunition she needs to fire him, and become manager. Archie, the boy who has apprenticed at the shop, is happy Monty is gone, and Archie helps Hannah clean and reconfigure the shop.
The next day, coming in early, she finds her good friend Lily-Anne murdered, and this impels Hannah to find out who killed her friend because she feels the stern police inspector Farrell isn’t doing enough.
This sets off a chain of actions that result in Hannah finding out upsetting things about
-Lily-Anne
-Hannah’s deceased fiancé
-Monty
-how easily opiates can be procured and how prevalent drug addiction is, and
-Someone of her acquaintance possibly committing treason for the Germans.
I liked the premise of this, but kept finding myself irritated with Hannah, who keeps evidence to herself, and generally stumbles and bumbles her way around, then gets annoyed when she discovers Farrell is often ahead of her, and that he and her interesting aunt are getting involved. Hannah also pines after a friend who is engaged to another woman. I found him irritating also despite the author wanting readers to love him.
I would actually read more if Violet and Farrell’s roles were increased and Darius, Hannah’s love, were written out.
Thank you to Netgalley and to Boldwood Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.
I only got to 7% of the book and was so bored I couldn't take it anymore. I was listening to the audio version and the accents that were used for some of the characters made their words impossible to understand. Every single man portrayed so far is either a bumbling idiot or an absolute jerk.
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Strong character development:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
medium-paced