Bookish Cozy Mystery Clause of Death (A Booktown Mystery Book 16) BY Lorna Barrett

334 Pages Berkley Publisher June 7,2022 Publish Date

About The Book

Bookstore owner Tricia Miles tries to open a new chapter in life, but murder mars the pages in the latest entry to Lorna Barrett’s New York Times bestselling Booktown series.

Tricia Miles and her sister, Angelica, are the co-presidents of the Stoneham Chamber of Commerce. Things are changing in the booktown, and some merchants would say not for the better. They grumble that too many non-book-related stores are moving into the village, taking up the most visible storefronts on Main Street, diluting the “Booktown” moniker. Of course, the members with other businesses, like the latest, The Bee’s Knees, are fine with other businesses moving in. No matter what side of the argument they’re on, all the business owners agree on one thing: Tricia and Angelica are to blame. 
 
Still, it’s a pretty typical day in the life of a small-town Chamber of Commerce until one of the disgruntled bookstore owners is killed—Eli Meier from The Inner Light Bookstore, the most vocal of the Chamber complainers. He sold religious and other spiritual books, but also stocked books on wild conspiracy theories and sold incense, crystals, etc. Eli had never been a member of the Chamber until Angelica recently convinced him to join. He hit on her and she, having good taste, turned him down. He hounded (but not stalked) her, and some might think that was a motive for murder. 
 
Stoneham’s new police chief is an old friend of Tricia’s, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to go easy on her sister. One might even say that he’s going to throw the book at her.

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My Thoughts

Clause of Death is the sixteenth book in the Clause of Death series.
Having read several books in the series I was looking forward to this book.
What I thought was pretty neat is because this is Booktown, most of the bookstores and restaurants along with shops have a book related name. I want to visit this bookish town.
I am familiar with our main characters, Tricia Miles and her sister, Angelica, who are the co-presidents of the Stoneham Chamber of Commerce.
At the town meetings and around town some of the residents make it known they are very unhappy with non-bookish shops coming into town and taking prime spots on Main Street.
When a disgruntled bookshop employee is found dead Stoneham’s new police chief has no problem trying to throw the book at one of the sisters.
There were some very surprising going On’s and it had a sad ending that I was hoping would have had a different outcome.
I’m looking forward to many more books in this series.

Pub Date 07 Jun 2022
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

The Author

The immensely popular Booktown Mystery series is what put Lorna Barrett’s name on the New York Times Bestseller list, but it’s her talent — whether writing as Lorna, or L.L. Bartlett, or Lorraine Bartlett — that keeps her there. This multi-published, Agatha-nominated author pens the exciting Jeff Resnick Mysteries as well as the acclaimed Victoria Square Mystery series and has many short stories and novellas to her name(s).

Lorna lives in Rochester, NY with her husband and two cats, Poppy and Emma.

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