A movie star is typecast as a killer in the second Dangerous Type Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of To Helvetica and Back.
It’s January, and the Star City Film Festival has taken the Utah ski resort town by storm. Movie stars are everywhere, carving fresh powder on the slopes and crossing the thresholds of Bygone Alley’s charming boutique shops—including The Rescued Word, where Clare Henry and her grandfather restore old typewriters and beloved books. When cinema’s hottest superhero, Matt Bane, enters their store to buy some personalized notecards, it’s hard not to be starstruck.
But when Clare sees the police leading Matt out of The Fountain hotel in handcuffs only a few hours later, she can’t believe her eyes. The affable actor is accused of killing his sister, but Clare’s convinced he’s wrong for that role. Now it’s open call for suspects as Clare tries to reel in the killer before another victim fades to black...
Good. Not great, but good. I like the setting; the shop that fixes typewriters, restores books, does small batch publishing on an old Gutenberg replicate. I like the characters too, although I'm not really invested in any of them. I sort of expected this though; I've read two of the author's other series and felt the same way.
The mystery plotting was sketchy; I didn't guess the murderer at all, but I don't think the author made that possible. For all the sleuthing Clare does, I'm not sure she really finds any clues that are useful to herself or the reader. She doesn't deduce anything, but rather is lead to the culprit at the end by their own behaviour.
Still, in a market that has become rapidly shallow over the last few years, this is a pleasant, entertaining cozy mystery. I'll happily read the next one.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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9 March, 2017:
Finished reading
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9 March, 2017:
Reviewed