Sunday, April 30, 2023

A Midsummer Night's Scheme - Bookbinding Mystery #2


A Midsummer Night's Scheme is the second Bookbinding cozy by Harper Kincaid. Released 21st March 2023 by Crooked Lane, it's 288 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is a fun, very light, bookish shopfront cozy full of pets, over the top (borderline silly) plot developments, and lots of puns. The violence happens off-scene and the language is very clean, not even PG level (one "damned" and a clean humorous punnish pin one of the characters wears). The book is a standalone, but there are definitely some overarching plot details which are carried over into the next book(s). 

Readers will need to bring a stout suspension of disbelief to the read since many of the situations and motives are fairly contrived. The author has included a number of intriguing southern recipes at the back of the book as a bonus (including fried pickles and liver & onions). 

Three and a half stars. Well worth a look for fans of light bookish cozies such as Sue Minix, Ellery Adams, and Ellie Alexander. 

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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