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Book Clubbed
Cover of Book Clubbed
Book Clubbed
Borrow Borrow
The New York Times bestselling author of Not the Killing Type is back in Booktown with another page-turning mystery. Bookstore owner Tricia Miles and her sister, Angelica, must put their problems on the shelf to catch a killer who turns a bookcase into a murder weapon…
After cranky Chamber of Commerce receptionist Betsy Dittmeyer is crushed by a fallen bookcase, the next item to be read is her will, which is packed with surprises. It seems Betsy was hiding volumes of secrets behind her perpetual frown—one of which might have been a motive for murder.
While Tricia tries to help Angelica—the newly elected Chamber of Commerce president—solve the mystery, she discovers a hidden chapter in her own family history. And with her ex-husband and the chief of police vying for her affections, it’s doubly hard to focus on who buried Betsy in a tomb of tomes.
But Tricia and Angelica will need to watch their step carefully to make sure the killer doesn’t catch them between the stacks.
The New York Times bestselling author of Not the Killing Type is back in Booktown with another page-turning mystery. Bookstore owner Tricia Miles and her sister, Angelica, must put their problems on the shelf to catch a killer who turns a bookcase into a murder weapon…
After cranky Chamber of Commerce receptionist Betsy Dittmeyer is crushed by a fallen bookcase, the next item to be read is her will, which is packed with surprises. It seems Betsy was hiding volumes of secrets behind her perpetual frown—one of which might have been a motive for murder.
While Tricia tries to help Angelica—the newly elected Chamber of Commerce president—solve the mystery, she discovers a hidden chapter in her own family history. And with her ex-husband and the chief of police vying for her affections, it’s doubly hard to focus on who buried Betsy in a tomb of tomes.
But Tricia and Angelica will need to watch their step carefully to make sure the killer doesn’t catch them between the stacks.
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  • From the book ONE

    For once the winter weather seemed to be cooperating, meaning that unless any unforeseen complications arose, Tricia Miles, owner of the mystery bookstore Haven’t Got a Clue, would get a lot accomplished on that particular Saturday in February. No ice, no snow, and though the sun had not yet made an appearance in Booktown, otherwise known as Stoneham, New Hampshire, the skies were due to clear before lunchtime—hopefully bringing plenty of book-buying customers with it.

    Meanwhile, Tricia and her sister, Angelica, who owned not only the Cookery bookstore, but a charming retro café, Booked for Lunch, and had a half share in a local bed-and-breakfast called the Sheer Comfort Inn, had a date to look over a private book collection. These kinds of sales were few and far between, and their window to make a bid on the collection was narrow—between ten and eleven o’clock.

    Tricia glanced at her watch. It was 9:55 and Angelica wasn’t yet ready to leave.

    “Ange, will you hurry,” she called, but Angelica was deep in conversation with her new receptionist. In actuality, Betsy Dittmeyerwasn’t Angelica’s personal secretary, but she was employed by the local Chamber of Commerce. Angelica had won the election for the presidency back in November and had officially taken office some five weeks before. Things hadn’t gone so well during that time. The former Chamber president, and Angelica’s former lover, had made the transition as difficult as possible. So had the Chamber’s receptionist.

    “I don’t know how much longer I can tolerate this impossible situation,” Betsy cried, and sighed dramatically.

    “I’m sorry,” Angelica apologized as she struggled into the sleeves of her leather jacket, “but you, more than anyone else, should understand the Chamber’s predicament. When Bob Kelly terminated our lease on the former Chamber building, we had to scramble. I’m giving up a large portion of my storeroom until other arrangements can be made.”

    “It’s embarrassing and inconvenient to have to share restroom facilities with the general public,” Betsy huffed, setting her wastebasket filled with candy and other junk-food wrappers, as well as a load of dirty tissues, on the floor, and her key ring on the counter. She must have been on her way to tote the trash out back when she stopped to berate Angelica. Prim and proper, Betsy lived her life by Robert’s Rules of Order. At fifty-something, she was barrel shaped with brown hair streaked with gray. She took no guff from anyone, and she didn’t encourage frivolity of any sort. Tricia doubted the woman had ever smiled, let alone laughed. She watched as, with exaggerated care, Betsy yanked the sleeves of her maroon sweater over her wrists, then pulled it down over her rather large derriere.

    Tricia glanced at her watch once more. Thanks to Betsy, they’d hardly have time to look at the books before they would have to make a decision on whether or not to buy them. Betsy had a penchant for being annoying. And according to Angelica, the woman spent an inordinate amount of time tying up the Cookery’s facilities, usually timing her bathroom breaks for when the store was full of paying customers in need of a restroom visit.

    “I’ve got feelers out on several properties that might be available for rent, but Mr. Kelly hasn’t been helpful about setting up the appointments,” Angelica explained. And it was irritating that the property owners insisted that Angelica go through Bob. How long could they afford not to rent to the...

Reviews-
  • Publisher's Weekly

    May 19, 2014
    Barrett’s eighth Booktown mystery (after 2013’s Not the Killing Type) struggles to keep the series formula fresh, as bookstore owner, and so-called “town jinx,” Tricia Miles investigates yet another death in Stoneham, N.H. This entry’s victim is Betsy Dittmeyer, an ill-tempered secretary at the Chamber of Commerce, whose new president happens to be Tricia’s sister, Angelica. After a bookcase falls on Betsy and kills her, the townspeople learn that she, in true soap opera fashion, had been keeping files containing damaging info on chamber members—and was hiding worse secrets into the bargain. While Tricia probes the suspicious death, she finds herself being romantically pursued by both her ex-husband, Christopher Benson, and former boyfriend, police chief Grant Baker. Readers may be amused by a recurring tic in the writing, in which every attractive man Tricia meets is described as having green eyes. Beyond a plethora of green-eyed males, however, this smalltown cozy does not stand out in its crowded field. Agent: Jessica Faust, BookEnds.

  • Kirkus

    June 15, 2014
    A New Hampshire bookstore owner who specializes in mysteries finds yet another one outside the pages. Tricia Miles is considered the town jinx because she's always finding dead bodies. This time the victim is Betsy Dittmeyer, the nasty receptionist for the Stoneham Chamber of Commerce. Betsy seems to have been crushed by a bookcase, but she was actually strangled in the storeroom of the cookery bookstore owned by Tricia's sister, Angelica. Alas, Betsy was loved by no one, not even her sister, Joelle, or her ex-husband, Jerry, and Tricia's snooping turns up a lot of nasty secrets. Betsy, who was surprisingly wealthy, planned to cut her sister out of her will. The source of her wealth is a puzzle until Tricia finds a list of Chamber of Commerce members hidden on Betsy's computer, along with appended information that could be a rich source for blackmail. She also learns that Betsy and Jerry had a child who died and that she was a hoarder whose house is packed to the rafters with junk. Angelica, who's recently become president of the Chamber of Commerce, is desperately seeking a new office because the outgoing president, her former lover Bob Kelly, owns most of the real estate in town. When she does find a house, it turns out to have been another of Betsy's rentals. Naturally, it's also full of junk; not so naturally, it contains more than $40,000 in cash. Through it all, Tricia must deal with her former husband, who wants her back, and the chief of police, with whom she has a rocky relationship. And at long last, she also learns the real reason her mother never loved her. Not as good as Tricia's last (Not the Killing Type, 2013), perhaps because the mystery seems to be an afterthought. But the gossipy personal revelations about the locals will delight fans.

    COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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