Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Death in the Stacks - Cozy Mystery Review


Rating: Very Good
Source:  Publisher

Description: 
Lindsey Norris and her staff are gearing up for the Briar Creek Library's annual Dinner in the Stacks fund-raiser. The night of dinner and dancing is not only a booklover's dream--it's the library's biggest moneymaker of the year. But instead of raising funds, the new library board president is busy raising a stink and making the staff miserable.

Although Olive Boyle acts like a storybook villain, Lindsey is determined to work with her and make the event a success. But when Olive publicly threatens the library's newest hire, Paula, Lindsey cracks like an old book spine and throws Olive out of the library.

The night of the fund-raiser, Lindsey dreads another altercation with Olive--but instead finds Paula crouched over Olive's dead body. Paula may have secrets, but Lindsey and the rest of the crafternooners know she's not the one who took Olive out of circulation. As the plot thickens, Lindsey must catch the real killer before the book closes on Paula's future . . .

Genre: Mystery - Cozy

Why I Picked This Book:
  This is one of my favorite series and I can never resist a book set in a library!

My Impression:
  I love this series and this book is one of those that really makes me remember why.  I brought this book with me when I was stuck in carline to pick up my son from school.  Sometimes I can find it hard to concentrate and half the time end up looking stuff up on my phone.  However, this was not the case with this one.  I was sad when I saw the cars starting to move because I'd have to put the book down!

Olive is such a great villain.  She's so awful but not so awful she's over the topo and unbelievable.  It's even explained how she's managed to succeed.  From the blurb I knew she was going to die and I was actually excited for it to happen.  This isn't one of those cases of "who would want to kill her".  This is a "who has the biggest motive to kill her" because EVERYONE wants to kill her and with pretty good reason.

The pacing was amazing.  I was swept in to this one and really didn't want to put it down but I didn't feel like it was rushed.  I changed my mind about the who just about every page and loved when it all finally came out.  While this is book 8 in the series I think you can jump in here without any problem.  While Lindsay and Sully's relationship has been a bit up and down it's not so complicated with issues that it's hard to follow.  Though if you're a regular reader of this series seeing a bit of a different side of Ms. Cole will be a special treat.  As well, characters from other series make an appearance.  If you don't know them it won't be confusing but if you do it's an extra bit of fun.  This was just a delight - perfect dive in, forget your problems, cuddle up with a blanket kind of reading!  

Would I Read More of this Series/Author?
  Absolutely!  I want more from this series though in the meantime I need to start her Hat Shop series!

Would I Recommend this Book?
  Absolutely!  This was one of my favorite cozies so far this year.  You can dive in here without any problem but the rest of the series is pretty great.

11 comments:

  1. Oh sounds like another good series. I think I just could be a convert to cozes. But first I am going to go through the Rhys Bowen Royal series as I so enjoyed the first one, light and fun and that's what I am feeling like at the moment.

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  2. I'm jotting this one down as one to get. It's been a while since I bought a cozy but like Lynn Cahoon, I keep seeing Jenn McKinlay's name come up and her books sound fun. Nice that you can jump into this one too, even if you do benefit from starting at the beginning.

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  3. Oh, I am so behind on this series! Good review—you've got me wanting to read them again. I mean, not that I haven't wanted to, but they slipped further down my list due to so many other series I was following. Anyway, perhaps I will just jump back in with this one, and go back and fill in later.

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  4. This author and her series have been on my wishlist forever. This one sounds really good.

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  5. This series is on my list to start--can't believe it's up to book 8! Where does the (reading) time go?

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  6. Another one for my TBR list. Loved your review!

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  7. Sounds like you're having fun with this series!

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  8. I really need to get started with this series. I have really enjoyed some of Jenn McKinlay's other series so this one is a must read for me.

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  9. I'm not reading too many cozy mysteries right now, but I do enjoy them every now and then. And this sounds like a fun series. I'm going to go and see about finding some of the earlier books! Good review, Katherine.

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  10. I loved this one too! I can't wait to read more in the series.

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