Book Review: Murder is Binding

Book: Murder is Binding (Booktown Mysteries book #1) by Lorna Barrett

Cover Art by Teresa Fasolino
Cover Design by Diana Kolsky
Interior Text Design by Laura K. Corless

Edition: Paperback

Description:

The streets of Stoneham, New Hampshire are lined with bookstores...and paved with murder.

When she moved to Stoneham, city slicker Tricia Miles met nothing but friendly faces. And when she opened her mystery bookstore, she met friendly competition. But when she finds Doris Gleason dead in her own cookbook store, killed by a carving knife, the atmosphere seems more cutthroat than cordial. Someone wanted to get their hands on the rare cookbook that Doris had recently purchased-and the locals think that someone is Tricia. To clear her name, Tricia will have to take a page out of one of her own mysteries-and hunt down someone who isn't killing by the book.





Rating: 4 stars

Review:

Murder is Binding is an interesting mystery that's set in Stoneham, New Hampshire, a small town created to bring in tourists with the small businesses mainly being bookstores. The mystery in this book centers around the mysterious death of Doris Gleason, a cantankerous old woman who owns the cookbook store, The Cookery. As well as a valuable and rare old cookbook that Doris had that went missing.

Unfortunate for Tricia Miles, who owns the mystery bookstore Haven't Got a Clue, she had become the main (and only) suspect for both incidents. With stubborn Sheriff Wendy Adams, who was up for re-election, had her sight set only on Tricia as the murderer, it will be up to Tricia to clear her name. In solving the mystery, she surprisingly received some assistance (sometimes unhelpful) from her annoying older sister Angelica Preston. The thing is Angelica, who's rich and rather sophisticated, was only supposed to be visiting Tricia, however as the story went along the reader as well as Tricia could see Angelica gradually making herself at home in the small town. She was clearly in town simply to avoid dealing with an issue which was later talked about in the book.

Tricia had thought this was only going to be a short visit. But I guess her sister being there did turn out to be good (at least at times) especially since trying to track down clues didn't always go well. The more she uncovered it was leading her towards three suspects. One was someone she thought she was getting to know in a more romantic way but she was truly seeing him in a new light. And it was rather disturbing and slightly terrifying. The second suspect just might not be who she says she is but how could Tricia prove it. The third suspect was high profile but was also supposed to have a meeting with Doris prior to her being found murdered. So is the murderer one of these three or someone else?

This was a pretty good story and mystery with interest characters. There's also a little focus on food with recipes included at the back of the book. And despite suffering from reader's block, this story kept me interested in seeing how the mystery was solved. This is a fast-paced story that under normal conditions, I would have had this book read a lot sooner. Regardless this was a good read and had me interested in reading the next book in the series.