Crime and Poetry (Magical Bookshop Mystery, #1)

by Amanda Flower

From the national bestselling author of the Amish Quilt Shop Mysteries comes the first charming caper in the Magical Bookshop Mystery series.

Rushing home to sit by her ailing grandmother’s bedside, Violet Waverly is shocked to find Grandma Daisy the picture of perfect health. Violet doesn’t need to read between the lines: her grandma wants Violet back home and working in her magical store, Charming Books. It’s where the perfect book tends to fly off the shelf and pick you...

Violet has every intention to hightail it back to Chicago, but then a dead man is discovered clutching a volume of Emily Dickinson’s poems from Grandma Daisy’s shop. The victim is Benedict Raisin, who recently put Grandma Daisy in his will, making her a prime suspect. Now, with the help of a tuxedo cat named Emerson, Violet will have to find a killer to keep Grandma from getting booked for good...

• ISBN10: 0451477448
• ISBN13: 9780451477446
• Publish Date: 5 April 2016
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Berkley
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 368
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780451477446

Reviews

[mrs_mander_reads]

I really liked this storyline, and I think the characters are all well-written. I'm giving it 3 stars because there's soooo much resemblance to Ellery Adams Secret Book and Scone Society series... I think this one might have been written before? Not sure. But, book shops and magical waters in both. I'll probably read the second one regardless.

[Mystereity Reviews]

Crime and Poetry is the first book in the new Magical Bookshop series. Violet Waverly gets an urgent call that her grandmother is dying and needs her to return home to Cascade Springs, near Niagara Falls, NY. . When she arrives, she finds her grandmother, Daisy, is just fine and lured her back home to take over the family business, a bookshop called Charming Books.

Haunted by the death of a friend 12 years ago, Violet intends to return to Chicago to continue getting her degree, but when Daisy’s friend Benedict Raisin turns up dead in her driveway, and Daisy is under suspicion for his murder. Violet feels she has to stay until the real murderer is caught. Attracted to the town’s police chief, pursued by her childhood sweetheart, and stunned by a family secret, can Violet unravel a mystery and solve a murder with the help of books?

I really enjoyed this book. Having grown up in WNY, just an hour away from the Falls, I was instantly comfortable with the setting. The little town of Cascade Springs sounds just like many of the picturesque small towns that dot the landscape around Buffalo and Niagara Falls. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen a bookshop with a birch tree growing inside (bonus points for a talking crow!) but I’d love to visit one someday!

The plot was very well done, lots of suspects and motives and surprising plot twist at the end. I liked that although there’s a paranormal element – it is a magical bookshop, after all – the murder was solved mostly by old-fashioned sleuthing.

The characters were charming and a little eccentric, from retro Sadie to Grandma Daisy to little furry cat sidekick Emerson, they added color and dimension to the little town of Cascade Springs.

I do have to say, that any backstory/traumatic past event in the main character’s past would be best included in the first few chapters. In Violet’s case the death of her friend was alluded to several times, but wasn’t until nearly 3/4 of the way through the book that the whole story was revealed. That was way too long; disclosing it sooner might have helped to build some empathy for Violet.

Also, the burgeoning love triangle kind of detracted from it. The police chief makes her all tingly, why bother with the childhood sweetheart? Unnecessary plot device.

Overall, a great first in a new series and I look forward to visiting the magical bookshop again.

[MurderByDeath]

Short review:  potential with room for improvement.   

Longer review:  The beginning of the book didn't start off auspiciously for me, as the first scene is Violent rushing home because she believes her grandmother is gravely ill, only to find that she's in perfect health and faked her illness over the phone to get Violent to come home.  That's a shit thing to do and I can't believe anyone would find it anything else.   

But the bookshop is the ultimate: an old Victorian home with a birch tree growing through the middle of it, a talking raven adding commentary and the perfect book for you flies off the shelf.  Literally.   

I'm a bit ambivalent about Violet as an MC, she's likeable but a bit melodramatic too; I got heartily tired of hearing about her trauma drama from adolescence.  The repetitious hints sapped the impact of the revelation once it was finally made.  A few TSTL moments too.  

But I do have a serious insta crush on the police chief, Chief Rainwater.  The author has a real opportunity to incorporate Native American myths and culture, and I hope she takes advantage of it.  Sadly it looks like she's going to create some kind of love triangle so that's a strike against the series already.   

The mystery itself was pretty good; well-plotted and a little bit unexpected in who the killer really is.  Lots of little details too that made the whole story pretty interesting, although a bit too drawn out.   

Overall, a decent start and I'll read the next one to see if it goes anywhere I want to follow.

[Silvara]

Check out my other reviews, discussions and link ups at Fantasy of the Silver Dragon.

I received this book for free from Obsidian in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This was such a fun book! I didn't guess who the killer was, I was thinking it was one of two other people. But it made total sense once the reveal happened. I loved Grandma Daisy, she was fun and perfectly fit the mischievous meddling grandma role, with a few extra quirks thrown in.

I also really liked Violet. And how her past slowly revealed itself as clues to the main mystery appeared. There are hints about a love triangle, but honestly her old boyfriend, now the mayor, irked me. I'm really hoping the police chief wins out, and it certainly looked like he was going to. But we'll have to wait and see.

The whole premise of a magical bookstore was neat. Not a lot happened with the store in this one, most likely because it was setting up the series. Books followed Violet around, and a few customers were chosen by a book instead of the other way around. I'm guessing more will happen now that she believes in the store. I can't wait to see what the store will do in the next books. And I really liked the talking crow, and Emerson the cat. All the characters were well-written, with strengths and flaws. The town felt real, and I loved getting to know most of the characters that appeared in the book.

This totally made my keepers shelf, and I can hardly wait to see what happens in the next book!

This review was originally posted on Fantasy of the Silver Dragon