by Jenn McKinlay
Release Date: October 8, 2024
2024 Berkley
Ebook ARC; 317 Pages
ISBN: 978-0593639382
ASIN: B0CRTC24ZY
Audiobook: B0D63FDSZF
Genre: Fiction / Cozy Mystery
Source: Review copy from publisher
3 / 5 Stars
Summary
During the most wonderful time of the year,
famous author Helen Monroe arrives in Briar Creek to be the writer in
residence, but her “bah humbug” attitude excludes her from the many
holiday celebrations the town residents enjoy. Another
newcomer, Jackie Lewis, reveals she’s visiting Briar Creek to be near
Helen because she believes they are destined to meet.
When Jackie’s body is later discovered in the town park beneath the holiday-light display with a copy of Helen’s latest manuscript in her hand, the reclusive novelist becomes the prime suspect in the murder of her self-proclaimed mega-fan.
My Thoughts
A Merry Little Murder Plot is the next installment in the Book Lover's Mystery series, and while it was fun to read, it was fairly predictable and focused quite a bit on the librarian's role in the library, almost a hero-worship of librarians through discussions on topics such as book banning and the role authors should play in peoples' lives. It was a bit preachy in my opinion as even librarians can hold prejudices and have been known to belittle people's reading choices. Other than that, it was fun to revisit Lindsay and company as they celebrate the festival season.
I did think the book started off rather strongly, with a plot that was rather engaging. You had characters who were quite into the festive season and others were reluctant to participate for a variety of reasons. The story focused largely on the writer-in-residence program that featured a popular writer working on a new book, and she was as bit prickly in the beginning. To be honest, I think writing a story in full view of a bunch a patrons frequenting a library would be kind of strange, and I think I would have difficulty writing in such circumstances as well and probably become cranky as a result.
When one of the patrons becomes irritated with the person chose as the writer-in-residence and stirs up trouble, this is where I started to become irritated with the story line. It's not that I didn't like the issue of book banning as it seems to come up more frequently these days, but I think it was the execution for me. The reasons were weak and then the actual plot around it seemed so far-fetched that I was actually rolling my eyes.
When the actual murder occurs in the book, I didn't really know what to think simply because the book fell into more tropes than Santa has bells on his sleigh, and what was rather interesting in the beginning just didn't seem to work anymore. I honestly wondered if the author knew what the purpose of the book was, the murder-mystery or a book about book banning and the consequences. Naturally, Lindsay and company have to help with the murder investigation, and while the author tried to throw in some interesting red herrings, it didn't really work for me and I knew who the culprit was pretty early on.
Verdict
A Merry Little Murder Plot was fairly predictable, and while the beginning of the book was quite interesting, the middle of the book fell apart and descended into a bit of chaos. The plot was rather weak compared to some of the previous entries in this series, and I thought the twists didn't really deter the reader from realizing who had done the deed. In other words, nothing much went on and there were a few unrealistic things in the plot.
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