Book Review - Murder is Binding (Booktown Mysteries #1)

Murder is Binding by Lorna Barrett

This is the first book in the Booktown Mystery series by Lorna Barrett, and centres around a mystery book shop owner named Tricia Miles who finds herself the local sheriff's primary suspect for the murder of the shop owner next door. She then goes about to prove her innocence, as well as revealing the real murderer.

For fans of cozy mysteries, this will be a nice addition to your collection but while there is nothing radically new to offer here, the author does a stand up job of placing the story in an innovative location, a town called Stoneham in New Hampshire which is full of bookshops, ranging from Tricia's own mystery shop, to books on history, arts and crafts and cookery. It's a fun place to set the story, and it's a town which offers up a whole cast of characters who are involved in the action.

Aside from Tricia, there is her older sister Angelica who comes to town on a surprise visit after her marriage ends, Tricia's employees Ginny and Mr. Everett, mysterious politician Mike and Miss Marple, Tricia's cat, amongst others. In a lot of mystery novels, the supporting characters can often be a bit one dimensional and are simply there to serve their purposes, but here the author has managed to create characters who do more than simply serve as a suspect at one point or another.

Which brings me to the conclusion. While I am happy I managed to guess the murderer, it really wasn't very difficult as plenty of obvious clues were placed along the way, which is one of the reasons I didn't award the book five stars. I would have liked more twists and turns, and where some parts of the book lagged, I felt that those places could have been used to add a bit more mystery to the book. Not that I didn't enjoy it of course, I simply suspect that with this being the first in the series, the author is still getting to grips with throwing off her readers.

The writing is good, it has a nice flow to it. Some parts feel slightly over written, but it's only the author's first novel and the first in a series so lots of time is spent in setting things up and giving the reader the impression of this world, which is no easy feat when there are so many characters involved as there are in mystery novels.

But all in all this is a good addition to any mystery fan's collection. It has plenty of things any cozy mystery should; a sleuth who is active in unravelling the mystery, a cast of colourful supporting characters and a nice flow to the writing. I can't wait to see what Book Two has in store for Tricia and the gang.