Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

Murder by the Book (the novel, Kensington Cozies, 2018) by Lauren Elliott is the first in the Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery series. I checked this book out to read on my Kindle via Libby through my local MCPL mostly because of the title and the cover. Many years ago, I directed a play by the same name as my first student theatre production at my daughter’s school, and it was so successful I directed it again at the school where I began my career in middle school education several years later. Murder by the Book (the play, Pioneer Drama Service, 2000) by Craig Sodaro was such a fun production and I knew it would be the first time I read the script. All of the characters were mystery writers who meet once a year disguised as their favorite author (Shakespeare, Christie, Poe, Twain, Dickinson, Brontë, etc.) to vote on the best new mystery of the year.

This “cozy” murder mystery novel was not (to me) nearly as fun or engaging as Sodaro’s play. I wanted to like this so much, really I did, I mean, it has a bookstore on the cover! It takes place in a sleepy little New England town. There are all sorts of cool shops like SerenaTEA, a bakery just next door, an antiques dealer, etc. The main character Addie comes to town after inheriting her aunt’s estate and decides to use the money to open a bookstore, stocking used and rare books and collectibles.

But almost from the first page, I didn’t find the plot line plausible. This newcomer has been renovating a shop for months and no one has met her, not even her next door neighbor, Serena, the owner of a tea shop? Addie is living in the mansion named for the town and its founder, and no one has seen her coming or going?

While billed as a mystery, Elliott’s book could not decide if it wanted to be a mystery or a romance. The mystery went on and on, and as the percentage of book left on my Kindle continued to tick downwards, more and more people turned up dead. The main character Addie and the chief of police Marc continue trying to solve the main mystery of who is after Addie, while also trying to prove Marc’s sister Serana’s innocence from a murder that just occurred. I’m not sure that’s how it would work in the real world, even in a small town. I’m sure he would have been unable to participate in the investigation given the fact that his sister is the main suspect.

One of the things that bothered me the most about the plot, however, was the fact that Marc almost immediately starts flirting with Addie. He keeps touching her face, putting his fingers to her lips to shush her, tucking strands of hair behind her ear, and it just doesn’t seem realistic at all. Addie has a lot of baggage (spoilers I won’t share) and tries to rebuke his attention, but she is also weak (and attracted to him) and seems to egg him on while saying that it is too soon for her to get involved with someone else.

Is it a murder mystery? Yes indeed, with as many dead bodies as are onstage at the end of Hamlet. Is it cozy? Yes, the murders happen off the page and the “romance” as it were is very tame. It is book one of a continuing series, the dream of all writers. Elliott has almost a dozen published (or soon to be published) novels. So, this book just wasn’t right for me, but I’m sure it is 100% right for many, many others. Lauren Elliott has a great career, and I wish her all the best with this book and her future ones!