Fatal First Edition by Jenn McKinlay

 

First Line: How's the windy city?" Nancy Peyton asked.

 

Librarian Lindsey Norris and her husband, Sully, are in Chicago attending an archivists' conference. After a lecture, Lindsey gets up to go to the front to meet book restoration specialist Brooklyn Wainwright and finds a tote bag containing a first edition of Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train inscribed to Alfred Hitchcock. Wainwright determines the novel is quite valuable, so Lindsey returns the book to the conference director.

Mere hours after boarding the train back to Connecticut, Lindsey and Sully find the conference director murdered in his private compartment. Even worse, the pair are prime suspects because the murderer planted the book in their room next door. Finding a killer just became even more important than usual.

~

If you're in the mood for a book that's just plain fun to read, pick up Jenn McKinlay's Fatal First Edition. Although this is one of my favorite series and I would love you to read all fourteen books in it, I think you could pick this one up and not feel confused about the characters and their lives if you don't have the time to invest in the entire series. (But don't blame me if you read it and find yourself looking up all the others.)

There are so many elements that make Fatal First Edition a winner. There's the cameo appearance by book restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright, the main character in Kate Carlisle's excellent Bibliophile series. There are ties to master mystery writer Patricia Highsmith and master filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock through Highsmith's Strangers on a Train. There's train travel for those of you who haven't had the pleasure (and those of us who have). Even the weather cooperates by providing a blizzard during the hunt for the killer.

With all these elements comes a first-rate cast that I consider part of my fictional family. When a character's life is in danger, I was reminded of how I think McKinlay could be an extremely talented thriller writer. She definitely had me turning the pages as fast as I could.

After this thrill ride of a mystery, I can't wait to see what is next in store for intrepid librarian Lindsey Norris. Hurry up with the next book, Jenn!

Fatal First Edition by Jenn McKinlay

eISBN: 9780593639351

Berkley Prime Crime © 2024

eBook, 280 pages

 

Cozy Mystery ,#14 Library Lovers mystery

Rating: A+

Source: Net Galley

Books of a Feather by Kate Carlisle

First Line: The air inside the old bookshop was thick with the heady scents of aged vellum and rich old leathers.

During the Covington Library's gala celebrating John James Audubon's Birds of America, book restorer Brooklyn Wainwright agrees to attempt the repair of one of Audubon's lesser known books. At the very same party, she's on an emotional high when she's also asked to refurbish a rare copy of Poor Richard's Almanack. But her euphoria comes to a screeching halt when she finds Jared Mulrooney, the person who asked her to repair the Audubon book, dead in the library.

It's the job of the police to find the killer, but when Brooklyn begins to concentrate on her work, she's interrupted by a surprise visit from her parents who bring a rather unsavory friend with them. And who is that strange man who's following her around? Brooklyn's got to find out what she has that someone else wants very badly.

I began reading Kate Carlisle's Bibliophile mysteries when the series first began but stopped because I soon became consumed by an irrational loathing of one of the secondary characters. After being told that this character is no longer around, it didn't take any persuasion at all for me to begin reading once more. 

I did find the mystery in Books of a Feather to be rather easy to solve, but that didn't bother me one little bit. Like all the best series, the mystery is important but the cast of characters and the setting are key. A beginning that has Brooklyn cataloging the books in an old shop and finding treasure after treasure immediately put me firmly in book lover's heaven. 

With Brooklyn's personal and home security at risk, her friend Alex devises a series of self-defense exercises for her. I really liked this, since so many amateur sleuths in cozy series consistently put themselves (and others) at risk without doing a single thing about learning how to defend themselves. (I do appreciate common sense!) These self-defense exercises lead to my favorite line in the book, too-- "That's my mommy!"

After a long hiatus from the series, I loved catching up with what's been happening in Brooklyn's life as well as learning little tidbits. Did you know that the people living in San Francisco have given the omnipresent fog a name? Neither did I. But the absolute best thing about coming back to Carlisle's Bibliophile series is being able to watch Brooklyn work on old books. Watching her restore old treasures is sheer bliss and makes me feel that-- at that moment-- all is right in my world.

Now that I'm back in the fold, I'm looking forward to Brooklyn's next adventure. Bring it on! 

Books of a Feather by Kate Carlisle

ISBN: 9780451477712

Berkley Prime Crime © 2017

Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages

Cozy Mystery, #10 Bibliophile mystery

Rating: B+

Source: the publisher

The Lies That Bind by Kate Carlisle

Title: The Lies That Bind
Author: Kate Carlisle
ISBN: 9780451231697
Publisher: Obsidian, 2010
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages
Genre: Cozy, Amateur Sleuth, #3 Bibliophile Mystery
Rating: C
Source: Paperback Swap

First Line: Layla Fontaine, Executive Artistic Director of the Bay Area Book Arts Center, was tall, blond, and strikingly beautiful, with a hair-trigger temper and a reputation for ruthlessness.

Book restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright has returned to San Francisco from Edinburgh, Scotland to teach a bookbinding class at BABA (Bay Area Book Arts). She loves BABA but can't stand the program director, Layla Fontaine, a woman who is truly gifted at her job but despised by her subordinates due to her penchant for wielding power as if it were a sledge hammer. However, when Layla is found shot to death, Brooklyn is willing to let bygones be bygones as she tries to identify the killer.

After the second book, If Books Could Kill, I was teetering precariously on top of the fence. There were just too many things about the characters and the story that didn't set well with me. Unfortunately many of the same things bother me in this book, too.

Brooklyn is too immature for me and gets on my nerves. Interested in sexy security expert, Derek Stone, the poor man can't glance at another woman without Brooklyn becoming jealous. It's also awfully easy for her to say that she hates someone. For someone with the flower power parents that she has, one would think that hate would be one word that's not bandied about lightly. For icing on the Brooklyn cake, several people tell her that she's naive and the world's worst liar. She is. I don't think being a terrible liar is a bad thing, but her naivete-- since she's showing no signs of becoming wiser-- could prove fatal.

Two of the characters that make me grind my teeth are Brooklyn's mother and Minka La Boeuf. Brooklyn's mother is supposed to be a flaky version of an Earth Mother. One of the brighter spots in this book is that Mama wasn't trying to force enemas on everyone. Minka, on the other hand, is an evil-tempered psychopath who's just way over-the-top. I keep hoping that she'll be the next victim in this series, but the mad cow refuses to moove off into the sunset.

Speaking of victims, Minka does have one thing right: everywhere Brooklyn goes, someone dies. Two months have passed since the first book in the series, and the bodies are beginning to pile up. If I were expecting to be anywhere near Brooklyn Wainwright, I'd hire a bodyguard.

I love the information about bookbinding that is included in the books, but that can't overcome the problems I have with the characters and plots where the killers are too easily guessed. This is one series that I'm going to let sit on the shelf for a while. With any luck, I'll pick the next book up sometime in the future and begin enjoying the series again.

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If Books Could Kill by Kate Carlisle

Title: If Books Could Kill
Author: Kate Carlisle
ISBN: 9780451228918
Publisher: Signet, 2010
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages
Genre: Cozy, Amateur Sleuth, #2 Bibliophile Mystery
Rating: C+
Source: Paperback Swap

First Line:  If my life were a book, I would have masking tape holding my hinges together.

Book restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright is still recuperating from the events in Homicide in Hardcover, but she's now in Edinburgh, Scotland attending the Book Fair. Her roguish ex, Kyle McVee, shows up with an original copy of a book that could very well change history and humiliate the British monarchy in the process.

When Kyle turns up dead, naturally Brooklyn is the first suspect out of the gate, so she starts conducting her own investigation to see if the motive for murder was a 200-year-old secret-- or something much more personal.

Although the main character is still suffering the effects from the first book in the series, there's no need to go back and get your hands on a copy to fill in the blanks. Carlisle provides enough detail for new readers to avoid confusion.

There is a lot to enjoy in this second book. I loved the Edinburgh setting, and-- just like the first time-- I really enjoyed the book restoration details which Carlisle provides. Brooklyn is a likable, interesting character who has a fascinating career, the promise of a lot of romance in her life, and a winning voice. The plot certainly has enough twists and turns to keep the pages turning, but there is trouble looming in my rearview mirror. I find two of the supporting cast of characters extremely annoying and more than a bit distracting.

Brooklyn's mother is a child of the 60's who never relinquished her hold on Flower Power. She's gone on to put New Age practices in a stranglehold as well. I found her dependence on spleen washes and other kooky-sounding stuff mildly amusing at first, but in this book she just got on my nerves.

The second character who chaps my hide is Minka LaBoeuf, Brooklyn's arch enemy. The character is so over the top she's like a cartoon character. Minka is screaming loud, she's obnoxious, and she's constantly telling the police that Brooklyn is responsible for whatever's gone wrong. I wouldn't be surprised if Minka also believes Brooklyn is responsible for global warming, the US deficit, and my trick knees. I really wish Carlisle would either have Minka put on some heavy duty meds... or have her committed. (Preferably the latter. I'd supply the strait jacket.)

When two secondary characters begin to annoy me to this degree, I begin to wonder if the series is really for me. The acid test will be Carlisle's third Bibliophile Mystery, The Lies That Bind. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

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