A Questionable Character is the 17th Booktown shopfront cozy by Lorna Barrett. Released 18th July 2023 by Penguin Random House on their Berkley imprint, it's 336 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback format due out in late 2nd quarter 2024 from the same publisher. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
This is a well written light cozy with a MC who owns and runs a bookshop in a small tourist town destination full of bookstores and specialty shops. The
background is well interwoven in the book, and it works as a
standalone without needing to have read the previous books. With so many books extant already in the series, it would make a good choice for a long binge/buddy read.
It's
a little longer than most cozies at over 300 pages but the plotting is fairly tight and it doesn't drag. The book is relatively clean, with only a sprinkling
of 'hell' and 'damn' and nothing more objectionable in the book than off-page murder, and the requisite threatened violence in the denouement and solution to the murder. Definitely safe for reading at work or on the bus. It's a
joke about the death count in the MCs immediate vicinity - she
always finds out whodunit, but at this point the sheer
statistical impossibility would make her a real life typhoid Mary. (Oh,
it's okay Tricia, you don't have to come to the wedding! Just send a card
*nervous laughter*).
Four stars, a fun light cozy mystery. The series will be a hit with fans of "Jessica Fletcher", Ellie Alexander, Cleo Coyle, and Jenn McKinlay.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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