Minotaur Books – Review: 3 Stars
Thanks so much to the author, St. Martin’s Press and Minotaur Books for the gifted, advanced copy of this book, as well as NetGalley for the gifted e-copy in exchange for my honest thoughts. All opinions are entirely my own. { partner } My reviews can also be found on Instagram @Tackling_TBR and on my blog at tacklingtbr.home.blog
Publication Date: April 5, 2022
Genre: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Fiction
TW: murder, arson, mention of attempted kidnapping
If there is anything that I love, it’s books about book people, and especially if those book people are also in a setting surrounded by books. Like, for instance, a book person who works and spends most of her time in a cute little bookshop in Scotland. You know, as a random example.
This was a fun mystery with a whole lot of storylines that until the end you’re not quite sure if they’re all connected in some way or not. There’s just a lot going on. I liked each storyline, and I do like how they do fit together in the end (spoiler? I guess?), but I will say that once or twice it got difficult to try and keep everything straight. There were characters with little roles in the smaller scale plots that I had to go back and remind myself who they were and how they were related to the story a couple of times.
I will say, I’m sure part of that is because this is book 7 in this series of cozy mysteries, and is the first one that I’ve read. I’m sure all of the main characters, and maybe some of the more supporting characters as well, were introduced in length in the previous novels, so maybe if I’d read the previous 6 books I would have had a little bit easier time with that. I don’t know that the problem would have completely gone away, since I was mostly having the trouble with folks related to the specific mystery. But either way, take that with a grain of salt.
One other small thing to note is that a lot of the dialogue is written out in a way to be read in a Scottish accent. This made it really fun and feel really immersed in the setting, but definitely keep in mind that you may need to use your own deductive reasoning to figure out a couple of words or sayings if you’re not familiar with it.
Overall I would recommend this book as a fairly easy cozy mystery. I figured out the ending before I got there, but isn’t that part of the charm of a cozy? I tend to think so, anyway. I think that the perfect way to read this book would be curled up in a comfy chair in a little bookshop, or at home surrounded by your bookshelves.
Tackling TBR 