mrs_mander_reads
Written on Mar 15, 2021
USA Today bestselling author Amanda Flower is back with the third in her more-charming-than-ever Magical Bookshop mystery. Fans of Sofie Kelly and Heather Blake, prepare your bookshelves!
Niagara region booksellers Violet Waverly and Grandma Daisy sleuth the slaying of a sommelier whose book signing turned into her sayonara.
January means ice wine season in the Niagara Falls region, but the festivities leave Charming Books owner Violet Waverly cold, still reeling from a past heartbreak. A past heartbreak who will be present at the annual midnight grape-harvest festival, and no magic in the world or incantation powerful enough could get Violet to attend. But Grandma Daisy, an omniscient force all on her own, informs Violet that she’s already arranged for the mystical Charming Books to host celebrity sommelier Belinda Perkins’s book signing at the party. Little do either Waverly women know, the ice wine festival will turn colder still when Violet finds Belinda in the middle of the frozen vineyard—with a grape harvest knife protruding from her chest.
Belinda grew up in Cascade Springs, but she left town years ago after a huge falling-out with her three sisters. One of those sisters, Violet’s high school friend Lacey Dupont, attends the book signing in the hope of making amends with her sister, but Belinda and Lacey end up disrupting the signing with a very public shouting match and Lacey quickly becomes the prime suspect in the sommelier’s murder.
Violet is sure Lacey is innocent, and to keep her friend out of prison, Violet asks for guidance from her magical bookshop. The shop’s ethereal essence points her to Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, but what have the four March sisters to do with the four Perkins sisters? If she can’t figure it out, Violet, herself, may turn as cold as ice. Violet, Grandma Daisy, Emerson the tuxedo cat, and resident crow Faulkner are back on the case in Murders and Metaphors, USA Today bestselling author Amanda Flower’s enchanting third Magical Bookshop mystery.
- ISBN10 1683318994
- ISBN13 9781683318996
- Publish Date 12 February 2019
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Crooked Lane Books
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 320
- Language English
- URL https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781683318996
Reviews
MurderByDeath
Written on Oct 10, 2020
This is one of those series where the premise and the characters are strong, but the writing and editing could be better. A bookshop with a magically sustained tree growing through the center that communicates through books with its owners; a raven that talks and a cat that understands more than he should; a native American sheriff that plays a strong role in the plots.
The mystery was ok; a little too frantic, but well done and I didn't guess the murderer. The motive was weak; plenty of other suspects had much more compelling reasons to kill the victim, which leaves the murderer's reasons feeling way too shallow.
There's a lot to like, and it's not an unenjoyable read, if you'll excuse the double negatives, it's just not a great read. I enjoyed the time I spent reading it enough to keep reading it, but not enough to feel anxious about reading the next one.