The Body in the Bookstore is the first in Ellie Alexander’s newest Secret Bookcase series. The series starts out strong, following out main character, Annie, as she develops a mystery convention in her small town Redwood Grove. Her job at the local bookstore, The Secret Bookcase, makes it more rewarding for her to get together with other local businesses to set up the mystery festival of a lifetime. After a great deal of hard work and planning, Annie is thrilled with the success of the event, until her past catches up with her. Annie finds that old college acquaintances have found their way to her event, leaving her feeling troubled and reliving the trauma of her past. When a body is found during one of the festival activities, Annie takes it into her own hands to discover if there is any link between her past and her present.
As one would expect from a book about a mystery festival, the number of callouts to mystery genre favorites such as Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie provided for a fun way to connect with the story. This was an important addition to the story because it focused a great deal on Scarlett’s backstory and providing the groundwork for a continuation of the story. That level of groundwork can feel tedious to get through, but the connections with favorites of the genre helped. It was a lot to take in while being introduced to so many characters and places at once.
The mystery itself fell victim to the downfalls of many first books in cozy mystery series in that it was forced. There were so many false leads and in the end, when the culprit was found, their motivation lacked the depth or surprise factor that it could have had. By the time Annie found closure within the case, there were so many unanswered questions left, that I struggled to feel satisfied with the ending.
The descriptions of the festival and the activities provided within the town of Redwood Grove were a delight. There were so many events happening that, while it was distracting from the mystery, it sounded like just the place that every mystery reader would want to go in real life. It would be a dream come true to find a whole town that really jumped into a plan like that with so much vigor.
Overall, this was a quick and easy read and a great start to a strong cozy mystery series
3.5/5 Stars
Thank you to Netgalley and Storm Publishing for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for my honest review.
The Novel Llama 