Murder Is Binding (Booktown Series #1)

Enjoyable regional amateur sleuth cozy

Murder Is Binding Lorna Barrett Berkley, Apr 2008, $6.99 ISBN: 9780425219584 The town of Stoneham, New Hampshire is considered the safest place in the sate because it hasn¿t had a murder in sixty years. However, Stoneham is ironically also a dying town until the President of the Chamber of Commerce and owner of Kelly ERealty Bob Kelly lured several used specialty bookstore owners to open shops on Main Street. One of the newcomers is Tricia Miles who opened her mystery bookstore. When she visits the cookbook store, Tricia finds proprietor Doris Gleason dead with a knife in her chest. The rare cookbook that Doris purchased is missing. The female sheriff has taken an instant dislike of Tricia and is determined to find enough evidence to prove she killed Doris she looks nowhere else for motives. When the victim¿s twin sister arrives to take over the cookbook store, Tricia is shocked that the newcomer has no interest in who killed her sibling. Tricia begins her own inquiries to clear her name and soon finds an elderly woman committed to a nursing home due to dementia but seems quite lucid when they talk. As local businessman Mike shows he is interested in her as does the sheriff for different reasons Tricia keeps digging to uncover who killed Doris. --- Stoneham seems so real that readers will regret when they recall it is fictional as it seems like a heavenly place to foliage for books. The townsfolk are friendly and helpful to Tricia and other newcomers, but in the heroine¿s case that somewhat changes when many assume she is the killer their logic is impeccable as why else would the sheriff consider her a person of major (and only) person of interest. Fans of regional amateur sleuth cozies will want to visit the bookstores of Stoneham guided by Tricia as she learns first hand that MURDER IS BINDING. --- Harriet Klausner

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Took a chance

I picked up this book on a chance and was pleasantly surprised by it. It was well written and the plot well thought out. This will be a series I will continue to read.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Great cover-mediocre story

This one didn't grab me. It's ok for rainy day reading, but didn't make me want to go out & get the next one in the series,

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Good read

I found this book entertaining and a quick read. I enjoyed the story line very much and would recommend it for light reading

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Nice reading when you don't want a very long book.

Very pleasant mild mystery I enjoyed. Quick reading and cute, I will not miss any of her upcoming books.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Love the Booktown series

I read #1 in the series and had to purchase the others.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

if you enjoy who done it this will keep you reading

Lorna Barrett gives life to her characters. you'll enjoy following each character. couldn't put it down. can't wait to read others by Lorna Barrett.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A great mystery story especially for booklovers!

I enjoyed this book. It was the first one I had read by Lorna Barrett. Look forward to reading the others. Good bedtime reading!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Not bad...but not great

As a huge Miss Marple fan, I was drawn to this book based on the cat's name, Miss Marple. This book promised to be a mystery lover's delight, but it was a little disappointing in that regard. It was lacking some character development, which is curious as it is the first one in the series. I just couldn't get attached to the characters. The ending was predictable--not good for a mystery. Overall, it was cute, and I definitely did want to finish it. I probably will read the next one in the series--but I'm not in a big hurry.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

New cozy mystery series

Tricia Miles runs the bookstore Haven't Got A Clue in Stonham, NH, with her cat Miss Marple. Life is going along great until her sister Angelica unexpectedly arrives in town. While she makes appetizing dishes, the relationship between them is strained, and Tricia wonders when Angelica will leave so life can go back to normal. Doris Gleason, the owner of Cookery, a neighboring cookbook store, is found dead in her store, and an antique cookbook Doris had recently acquired is missing. The local political race is about to divide the town in two, and Sheriff Adams seems bent on pinning the murder on Tricia. With the help of her employee Ginny and Mr. Everett, a store regular, Tricia sets out to find the real killer and get her life back. Can she do it without putting herself or others close to her in danger? I enjoyed the small-town setting of this book and that it was set around a bookstore. The characters were fun, and the cozy mystery was easy to read. I recommend this book.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Excellent New Cozy Series!

Well, I already knew that L.B. could write a mean paranormal thriller, but the question was whether or not she could pull off a cozy - something much more lighthearted and fun than her usual hard-boiled fare. No worries - it's as if she's been writing about Stoneham, the Safest Town in New Hampshire, and its interesting inhabitants all her life. Cozy lovers should definitely add the new Booktown Mysteries to their not-to-be-missed lists! Tricia Miles is a successful businesswoman who moved to the safe little village of Stoneham, New Hampshire following a painful divorce. As part of a downtown renovation project to revitalize the village, Tricia and several other booksellers were wooed to open up shop along Main Street. The new businesses helped give the town a new lease on life - but too bad for Doris Gleason, owner of the The Cookery, it didn't work both ways! While Tricia is giving her sister, Angelica, the 50-cent tour of her new digs, they discover the body of the recently deceased Doris - with a knife sticking out her back. As it turns out, Doris hasn't exactly endeared herself to the other booksellers, or anyone else for that matter, so there is an abundance of people who disliked her, although circumstantial evidence starts to point toward Tricia as a possible suspect. Tricia continues to be in the wrong place at the wrong time as Stoneham's nickname, the Safest Town in New Hampshire, becomes more and more of a misnomer. The entire book is wonderfully descriptive, the characters fascinating and 3-dimensional, the plot exquisitely complex, and L.B.'s painstaking attention to detail doesn't go unnoticed 'check out the facade of Haven't Got a Clue on the cover'! In addition, there is the added bonus of Tricia and Angelica's interesting and complicated sibling relationship. The way they were able to put aside past history to work together when push came to shove was touching. It made me ache for the company of my own sisters! There are an awful lot of new series to choose from in the cozy mystery subgenre these days, but if you're debating about which one to add to your TBR list, I'd recommend putting Murder is Binding at the top!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Small town cozy mystery with mystery bookseller sleuth

Lorna Barrett's Murder is Binding introduces the new Booktown Mystery series. A cozy mystery with a mystery bookseller amateur sleuth and a book at the center of the puzzle, this mystery is a fun light read. For mystery enthusiasts, the tribute to the mystery genre itself with mentions of mystery classics from Cornell Woolrich and Ngaio Marsh to Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie make Murder is Binding a must read. Every good cooking mystery must include recipes, and true to form, Lorna Barrett delights readers with a recipe addendum in the back. Stoneham, known as the safest town in New Hampshire, was a dying town until the downtown revitalization. Now, the center of town houses genre specialty bookstores and draws in tourists and book collectors. Tricia Miles and her cat Miss Marple run the mystery bookstore, Haven't Got a Clue. When she discovers Doris Gleason, owner of the Cookery, dead in the neighboring bookstore, Tricia sees a new side of Stoneham from the political race threatening to divide long term natives on the town's outskirts and the bookstore newcomers to other simmering jealousies. When another resident has a suspicious car accident, Tricia thinks she might have a lead into the motive behind the murder but who can she trust? Sheriff Adams seems determined to pin the murders on Tricia, the town jinx. Tricia's sister Angelica arrives into town unexpectedly, stirring up the past along with her appetizing dishes. Lorna Barrett's Murder Is Binding is a must read for mystery buffs. Full of first edition classics and tributes to many of the great mystery classics, readers will not only feel the nostalgia of a small town mystery but of their personal reading histories. Lorna Barrett's research into the bookseller trade flows in the smallest details from the details of book sources and different types of booksellers to the antiquarian and rare book standards for packaging books. Tricia Miles is a wonderful sleuth. With each new trail, the reader catches a glimpse of a woman who cares for others and justice beyond just clearing her name even to the point of endangering her own safety. Tricia's relationship with her sister Angelica adds depth to the characterization as Tricia battles a history of sibling rivalry at the same time as she gains a mystery sidekick who amuses and endears the reader to the sisters. To the reader's delight, the mystery details and resolution provide several twists until the very end. Lorna Barrett gives readers a delicious mix of small town and family jealousies and undercurrents beneath the surface complemented by heart-warming scenes, all brought together by Doris Gleason's murder. After reading Lorna Barrett's Murder is Binding, the first in the Booktown Mystery series, readers might just find themselves hoping that this small town will forever shed the distinction of safest town to make way for more Booktown mysteries!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Highly Recommended--you must check it out!

In Barrett's mystery novel, Tricia Miles has moved to Stoneham, New Hampshire following her divorce and opened up her own mystery bookstore. Surrounded by friends and kind faces, she made a life for herself. But when she discovers another bookstore owner dead, the local atmosphere changes drastically when it's discovered that the murder occurred over a rare and valuable old cookbook the owner had recently purchased. The locals turn their focus to Tricia and to clear her own name, she is forced to work the "crime scene" herself.

Filled with books, interesting characters, and mystery this is a wonderful debut book to The Booktown Mystery series.

Great Book.

I ordered the first and second in this series and after reading the first I ordered the rest of the series with out hesitation. I find the characters wonderful. I can see myself living in this town and befriending the characters. This first selection was so wonderfully suspenseful and fantastically fun. I love Tricia, Mrs. Marple and their cute little store.

Murder is Binding is Fantastic

Wonderfully written!!! I am a long time Murder She Wrote fan and never thought I would find other Amateur Sleuth or Cozy Mystery books I would like, until Lorna Barretts Booktown Mysteries.

This was a great read!

This was a great read. Easy reading. Great for traveling.

Exciting ending

Nice Cozy Mystery

Murder is Binding is worth the read

"Murder is Binding," the first book in the Booktown Mystery series by Lorna Barrett, catches your interest. The idea of a small New Hampshire town that gives itself an economic shot in the arm by enticing book stores to its Main Street is an interesting one, and the aura of small-town living blends well with the plot. With Tricia Miles as the owner of Haven't Got a Clue mystery bookstore it's easy to see why she gets interested in solving a murder. A reason in addition to the fact that she found Doris Gleason's body and pulled it from her burning bookstore, the Cookery.

There are enough characters and subplots to keep you reading. Is the candidate for selectman only that? Why did someone kill Winnie, the elderly woman who scavenged for what she could and resold items around town? Will Tricia's sister Angelica ever go home?

What does not ring true is that the sheriff sees Tricia as a suspect. Tricia is no more irritated by Doris Gleason's overbearing manner than other store owners seem to be and she is not seen near the Cookery just before the fire. Tricia wouldn't support Doris' efforts to keep the landlord from raising the rent, but that hardly seems like a motive. The sheriff thinks Tricia may have stolen a valuable cookbook, but there's nothing in Tricia's past that points to theft and murder.

Tricia seems ready to be offended by the sheriff or her deputy, and Tricia talks about the sheriff as if she's a mortal enemy. After a very brief conversation she asks a deputy to leave her store. Who gets away with that? The tension simply seems forced, and you're almost 200 pages into the book before anyone seems to think Tricia might need a lawyer. This being America, an earlier consult seems more likely.

What makes up for weak case against Tricia and her reaction to it is the way the plot develops to find the perpetrator. Or is it perpetrators? Did the same person steal the book, murder Doris, and start the fire? Who threw a huge stone through Haven't Got a Clue's large window, and why? Muddying the situation is Doris' sister who appears and takes over the Cookery, working hard to repair damage, restock, and open for business. No one remembers her talking about a sister named Deidre, but Doris wasn't too friendly, so no one really knew her family life.

Characters with smaller roles blend in well. My favorite is Mr. Everett, a senior who hangs around the bookstore reading (as opposed to buying) books, with Tricia even offering him a bookmark one evening. Toward the end of the book he occasionally minds the store. Grace, the elderly mother of son stowed her in a nursing home to gain access to her money, is winsome, and you almost want her returned to her own life as much as you want the murderer caught.

Finally, the book manages well the business of running a bookstore and Tricia's effort to solves crimes. There is a store assistant, but Tricia doesn't walk away from her work. Unlike its name, the store does offer its own clue.

This book is the first in the Booktown Mystery series, and I plan to keep reading, hoping the motive to solve the mystery is stronger in the next book. I give Murder is Binding three stars.

Good Read!

Good read for a summer day!

Great Start to a Wonderful Mystery Series!

This book is great! The mysterious plot, characters, and book store setting make this story a fantastic cozy mystery!