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Murder Is Binding


by Lorna Barrett

List Price: $6.99
Available: Usually ships in 24 hours
Sales Rank: 3341
Studio: Berkley
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: April 01, 2008
Publisher: Berkley


EDITORIAL REVIEWS

Product Description
The streets of Stoneham, New Hampsire are lined with bookstores...and paved with murder.

When she moved to Stoneham, city slicker Tricia Miles met nothing but friendly faces. And when she opened her mystery bookstore, she met friendly competition. But when she finds Doris Gleason dead in her own cookbook store, killed by a carving knife, the atmosphere seems more cutthroat than cordial. Someone wanted to get their hands on the rare cookbook that Doris had recently purchased-and the locals think that someone is Tricia. To clear her name, Tricia will have to take a page out of one of her own mysteries-and hunt down someone who isn't killing by the book.


CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 32 reviews)

New Cozy Series, Shows Promise  
Murder is Binding is a great start to a new cozy series about a town in New England that seeks to resurrect itself by creating a quaint street full of bookshops of all types, with the hope of attracting tourists. This first book is about a murder or two that involve the owners of a mystery bookstore and a cookbook store. You meet up with the usual cast of "normal characters", quirky characters, sinister characters, possibly guilty characters and a couple of bodies.

I enjoyed this book and look forward to the next book in the series. The book is well written, the central idea of the series offers promise and the characters are fun. The only drawback to this first book is that the murderer and final salvo are easily discernable early in the book. The author drops some not-so-subtle hints that make the solution-guessing process too easy for the reader. However, the storyline, the sharp writing and series idea shows much promise.

August 31, 2008

Disappointed  
I was pretty disappointed by this book. The characters didn't seem real to me at all, and the solution to the mystery was fairly easy to guess. And why, oh why, does the heroine have to go off with the murderer?

The premise seemed good, but in practice the book was weak.
August 31, 2008

New cozy mystery series  
Tricia Miles runs the bookstore Haven't Got A Clue in Stonham, NH, with her cat Miss Marple. Life is going along great until her sister Angelica unexpectedly arrives in town. While she makes appetizing dishes, the relationship between them is strained, and Tricia wonders when Angelica will leave so life can go back to normal.

Doris Gleason, the owner of Cookery, a neighboring cookbook store, is found dead in her store, and an antique cookbook Doris had recently acquired is missing.

The local political race is about to divide the town in two, and Sheriff Adams seems bent on pinning the murder on Tricia. With the help of her employee Ginny and Mr. Everett, a store regular, Tricia sets out to find the real killer and get her life back. Can she do it without putting herself or others close to her in danger?

I enjoyed the small-town setting of this book and that it was set around a bookstore. The characters were fun, and the cozy mystery was easy to read. I recommend this book.



August 18, 2008

A fun read...looking forward to the next book in series..  
This is a really fun mystery. The characters are unique, and the coziness of the small town adds to the flavor of the book.
August 04, 2008

A good first effort  
This is a nice little page turner. I really like the book store slant (I think I may be a bookstore owner wannabe!), especially the fact the protagonist is the owner of a mystery book store. Not exactly in the same mold as Bernie Rodenbahr or Cliff Janeway, but Tricia Miles is a nice "cozy" sleuth in that sub-genre's tradition. You hate some characters and cheer for others in this book, always a good test - if something engages you emotionally, it's effective, as this story is. I am interested in buying the second book, if for no other reason, than to see if Tricia's ongoing-yet-undeclared war with the county sheriff continues. It'll be interesting to see how the other characters develop, as well.
July 25, 2008


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Murder of a Chocolate-Covered Cherry (Scumble River Mysteries, Book 10)
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Poison Pen: A Forensic Handwriting Mystery
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Index to Murder: A Miss Zukas Mystery (Miss Zukas Mysteries)
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