A Killer Read by Erika Chase

A Killer Read (Ashton Corners Book Club, #1)

by Erika Chase

For the first meeting of the Ashton Corners Mystery Readers and Cheese Straws Society, six friends gather in Molly Matthews's old Southern mansion-including Lizzie Turner, a reading specialist with a penchant for mysteries. But the mystery book club meeting becomes the scene of an actual murder when a stranger is shot-and nobody knows who the victim is, or how Molly' antique gun came to be used as the murder weapon.

Then Lizzie begins finding mysterious manuscript chapters in her mailbox. As she and the book club members try to read between the lines, Molly surfaces as the next name on the killer's list...

Reviewed by MurderByDeath on

3 of 5 stars

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I'm not sure how I felt about this book - perhaps a tad ambivalent. The murder mystery was well developed, with good clues, red herrings, blind alleys, and a good conclusion. I appreciated the references throughout the book to other mystery writers too. I think my ambivalence stems from the characters, mostly Lizzy. She, and to a lesser degree a couple of the other characters felt wooden or robotic. A lot of the writing consisted of outlining Lizzy's day, with little or no colour thrown in to make it more interesting. Some of this might be the result of the third person narrative, but I don't think that can explain all of it. It just felt a bit like I was reading about an automaton. Not all of the characters struck me like this; Paige for example, while a minor player, felt far more three-dimensional to me.

I'll keep my eye out for the next book, but it won't be high on my list of must-haves yet.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 16 April, 2012: Finished reading
  • 16 April, 2012: Reviewed