Little Black Book (Bibliophile Mystery, #15)

by Kate Carlisle

San Francisco book-restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright is on the case when a rare edition of Rebecca leads to murder in this latest installment of the New York Times bestselling Bibliophile Mystery series.

Brooklyn and her hunky husband, security expert Derek Stone, have just returned from a delightful trip to Dharma, where the construction of their new home away from home is well underway, when a little black book arrives in the mail from Scotland. The book is a rare British first edition of Rebecca, and there’s no return address on the package. The day after the book arrives, Claire Quinn shows up at Brooklyn and Derek’s home. Brooklyn met Claire when the two women worked as expert appraisers on the television show This Old Attic. Brooklyn appraised books on the show and Claire’s expertise was in antique British weaponry, but they bonded over their shared love of gothic novels.
 
Claire reveals that during a recent trip to Scotland she discovered her beloved aunt was missing and her home had been ransacked. Among her aunt’s belongings, Claire found the receipt for the package that wound up with Brooklyn and Derek. Claire believes both her own life and her aunt’s are in danger and worries that her past may be coming back to haunt her.
 
But just as Brooklyn and Derek begin to investigate, a man who Claire thinks was following her is found murdered, stabbed with a priceless jeweled dagger. With a death on their doorstep, Brooklyn and Derek page through the little black book, where they discover clues that will take them to the shadows of a medieval Scottish castle on the shores of Loch Ness. Under the watchful gaze of a mysterious laird and the irascible villagers who are suspicious of the strangers in their midst, Brooklyn and Derek must decode the secrets in Rebecca to keep their friend’s past from destroying their future....

• ISBN10: 0593201434
• ISBN13: 9780593201435
• Publish Date: 29 June 2021
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Berkley Publishing Corporation,U.S.
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 384
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780593201435

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Little Black Book is the 15th Bibliophile cozy mystery by Kate Carlisle. Published 29th June 2021 by Penguin Random House on their Berkley imprint, it's 384 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.

I have enjoyed this series very much. The protagonist is sweet and likeable and even with a penchant for landing in the middle of murder and mayhem, she seems to always manage to stay kind, resourceful, and (mostly) brave. The details of the mystery and some of the plot twists really pushed my suspension of disbelief. At the end of the day, however, it's a cozy mystery and it's not egregiously silly, but fair warning; this is a cozy for real fans of the genre.

The plot moves along at a good pace and only a few chapters from returning from a trip to Dharma (a commune where protagonist Brooklyn grew up), they're on a trip to Scotland with her former colleague and casual friend and former colleague Clair, in an attempt to try to find Clair's missing aunt. There's a spooky gothic manor, an atmospheric mystery, and lots of classic book name dropping for readers who like suggestions for their TBR lists. The language is clean, there is no gore, and the denouement and resolution (though a bit over the top) are well done and satisfying.

I did find Derek and Brooklyn's *constant* smoochy obsession with one another a bit cloying, but they're still sort of newlyweds, so, ok. The characters the author writes are a bit two dimensional. The "good guys" are ONLY good, the best at whatever their specialty is, and too perfect for words. I know that most of us read cozies for pure escapist reading pleasure, so I'm likely in the minority. The book is quite well put together however and I never found it lagging or too slow. Although it's the 15th book in the series, it would work as a standalone, but readers must be willing to accept major spoilers for earlier books if read out of order.

The unabridged audiobook from Dreamscape is narrated by Susie Berneis and has a runtime of 11 hours 11 minutes. I had some issues with the voice reading in the first few chapters since it's a very dialogue heavy book and the narrator was doing three different accents (American, Scottish, and Mainstream Received Pronunciation) and both male and female parts. The narrator did find her pacing eventually and the accents mostly straightened out after a few chapters.

This is a perfectly fun light read in a fun series. Three and a half stars.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.