STORY SUMMARY
Hayley Burke, the new curator of Lady Fowling's collection of first edition mysteries at the First Edition Library in Middlebank House, is about to have an exhibition of Lady Fowling's life and letters. Her secretary, Mrs Woolgar, is finally accepting her although she still hasn't invited Hayley to visit her in her ground floor flat so after work hours, Hayley returns to her top floor flat.
Hayley has to hire an exhibition manager so although she doesn't really like the woman, Oona Atherton is the smartest choice, if she is available. Hayley worked under Oona when she worked as an assistant at the Jane Austen Centre. Oona is known for being difficult but is excellent with managing exhibitions. Hayley finds a hall to use in Naomi Faber's establishment...a very nice venue in downtown Bath named the Charlotte. Many local artists use this space and it is affordable.
As they begin to work on the letters they want to display, and Lady Fowling's journals, they come across a one page letter that alludes to a priceless edition of Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L Sayers, which was signed by several Golden Age of Mystery authors, including Agatha Christie, G.K. Chesterton. Supposedly this priceless edition is somewhere in Middlebank House!
Clues begin to surface that definitely point to the book being at the First Edition Library. Oona is very certain she has figured out the code that Lady Fowling seemed to have left in her notes. She sends Hayley a text one morning to say she has solved the mystery of where the book is located! But when Hayley leaves Middlebank to meet Oona at the office in the Charlotte, where Oona, her personal assistant Clara Powell are working,and a watercolorists' exhibition is taking place, Hayley discovers crime scene tape and the police all gathered around. Oona has been found dead at the bottom of the spiral staircase that leads up to her office! Clara is the one who finds her and calls the local precinct.
Did Oona's discovery of the Sayers book get her murdered or was she simply careless on the stairs? When the police discover that she had had her skull bashed in before tumbling down the stairs, Hayley and her boyfriend Val are determined to solve this mystery all while trying to get the exhibition up and running.
Who killed Oona....and just where is that priceless edition of Dorothy L Sayers' book??
MY THOUGHTS
I thoroughly enjoy this mystery series and if you like books, you probably will enjoy this series as well. The author establishes in book one the character development of Hayley, Val, Mrs Woolgar and Hayley's best friend Adele. She also sets the stage in book one for the board members and their personalities (the library has a board and a lawyer). In this second book, we meet Val's twin young adult daughters Bess and Becky and we learn more about Hayley's daughter Dinah, a college student and her ex-husband Roger.
Parts of this story seemed a bit contrived to me. It also got a little bogged down for me in the later part of the middle. But the ending picked up and it improved again.
I loved that we learned more about the relationship between Val and Hayley and Val as a dad to the twins. We also learn more about the loss of their mother.
We see Hayley having more confidence in this book and I liked that.
I'm looking forward to getting book 3 out of the library in a couple of months.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 14 and older.
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 9.
2 comments:
I read the first book in this series and really enjoyed it! Thanks for the review!
I think I'll put this series on my library to read lists. Sounds like fun, easy reads.
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