How to Book a Murder

by Cynthia Kuhn

Overview

Perfect for fans of Jenn McKinlay and Kate Carlisle, in Agatha award-winning author Cynthia Kuhn’s series debut, small-town bookseller and literary event planner Emma Starrs is out to close the book on a killer intent on crashing the party.

To help save her family’s floundering Colorado bookstore, Starlit Bookshop, newly minted Ph.D. Emma Starrs agrees to plan a mystery-themed dinner party for her wealthy, well-connected high school classmate Tabitha Baxter. It’s a delightful evening of cocktails and conjecture until Tabitha’s husband, Tip—hosting the affair in the guise of Edgar Allan Poe’s detective C. Auguste Dupin—winds up murdered.
 
In a heartbeat, Emma and her aunt Nora, a famous mystery writer, become suspects. Emma is sure the party’s over for Starlit events, until celebrated author Calliope Nightfall, whose gothic sensibilities are intrigued by the circumstances, implores the bookseller to create a Poe-themed launch event for her latest tome. Throwing a bash to die for while searching for additional clues is already enough to drive Emma stark raven mad, but another shocking crime soon reveals that Silvercrest has not yet reached the final chapter of the puzzling case.
 
Someone in this charming artistic community has murder on the mind, and if Emma cannot outwit the killer, she and her beloved aunt will land behind bars, to walk free nevermore.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643858593
Publisher:	CROOKED LANE BOOKS
Publication date:	12/07/2021
Series:	A Starlit Bookshop Mystery
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 7.80(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Cynthia Kuhn is an English professor and author of the Starlit Bookshop Mysteries and the Lila Maclean Academic Mysteries. Her work has also appeared in Mystery Most Edible, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Copper Nickel, Prick of the Spindle, Mama PhD, and other publications. Honors include an Agatha Award, a William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grant, and Lefty Award nominations. Originally from upstate New York, she lives in Colorado with her family. For more information, please visit cynthiakuhn.net.

Editorial Reviews

10/11/2021

This congenial series launch from Agatha Award winner Kuhn (the Lila Maclean series) introduces sisters Lucy and Emma Starrs. Lucy took over running the Starlit Bookshop in Silvercrest, Colo., after their parents’ untimely death, and is now assisted by Emma, who despite a PhD in English has forsaken an academic career. With the bookstore on the verge of closing, Emma organizes an Edgar Allan Poe–themed mystery party to help raise money to save it. Emma’s willing to do so even though the party is in honor of wealthy Tabitha Baxter, her high school nemesis. The party takes a macabre turn when Tabitha’s husband, who’s dressed as Poe’s detective C. Auguste Dupin, turns up murdered. Matters go from bad to worse when the clues point to Emma as the killer, and handsome Det. Jake Hollister, who investigates, unsettles Emma just as much as he did when they were in high school. The tension rises as the sisters and their mystery writer aunt set out at their peril to solve their own whodunit. Kuhn breaks no new ground, but cozy fans will look forward to seeing more of the Starrs sisters. Agent: Lesley Sabga, Seymour Agency. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for How to Book A Murder:
“Cozy fans will look forward to seeing more of the Starrs sisters.”
—Publishers Weekly

“A nice mix of interpersonal relations.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Sympathetic characters, a close-knit family, [and] the charming small-town bookstore atmosphere . . . distinguish this series debut.”
—Booklist

“[For] fans of mysteries with a bookstore or academic focus.”
—Library Journal

“Kuhn's new Starlit Bookshop series is a true delight! With her trademark humor, engaging characters, twisty plotting, and literary references sure to charm mystery fans, she has created the bookstore we all want to browse in and the event planner/amateur sleuth, Emma, we want to join our book club. I relished every page of How to Book a Murder.”
—Laura DiSilverio, national best-selling and award-winning author of The Readaholics Book Club mysteries

“Starlit bookshop is absolutely perfect . . . Cynthia Kuhn has created a bookstore we’d all love to visit, owned by the irresistible Emma Starrs and her family, visited by a range of eccentric, and bestselling, authors at events designed to excite the imagination of the staunchest book lover.”
—Vicki Delany, national bestselling author of the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop mysteries

“Kuhn’s new Starlit Book series sparkles with friendship, community and adventure. A gifted storyteller, Kuhn has created a delightful cast of quirky characters and a bookstore full of charm as a backdrop to an intriguing murder mystery.”
—Kathy Aarons, national bestselling author of the Chocolate Covered Mysteries

“How to Book a Murder is an unbeatable combination of Golden Age styling and modern-day intrigue, woven through with wit and keen observation.”
—Angela M. Sanders, author of the Witch Way Librarian and Joanna Hayworth Vintage Clothing mysteries

“Smart, suspenseful, and brimming with intrigue, Kuhn crafts the perfect page-turner in a town and bookshop so thoroughly crafted and real. I can’t wait to read the next mystery starring sleuth Emma Starrs.”
—Maggie Barbieri, author of the Murder 101 series

“Cynthia Kuhn’s academic background and mystery genre knowledge bring the perfect touch of reality to newly minted Ph.D. Emma Starr’s efforts to save the family bookstore . . . a fast-paced delightful read.”
—Debra Goldstein, author of the Sarah Blair Mystery series

“With its intelligent sleuth, bookish setting, and twisty plot, How to Book a Murder is a booklover’s dream come true!”
—Mary Angela, author of the Happy Camper cozy mystery series and the Professor Prather academic mystery series

From the Publisher

12/01/2021

Kuhn ("Lila Maclean" series) begins a new series featuring Emma Starrs, a newly minted PhD who goes home to Colorado to help her sister Lucy run the family bookstore. When their parents retired, Lucy took over running the shop; now she's overwhelmed, and the store may close if the sisters can't find more money. They learn that Emma's old high school frenemy Tabitha Baxter is married to Tip, a college dean, and the couple have great contacts for the bookstore. Looking for an in, Emma seizes the opportunity to take over as event planner for Tabitha's murder mystery dinner. When Emma finds Tip's dead body after the party, Tabitha immediately accuses Emma and her aunt Nora, a faculty member. Tabitha's clique begins issuing threats against the Starrs sisters' bookstore, and flamboyant author Calliope Nightfall decides to have her Poe-related release party at the shop—on the same day the killer strikes again. VERDICT The story is a formulaic introduction to a new cozy series, but Calliope stands out as a character. Fans of mysteries with a bookstore or academic focus may want to try.—Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

Library Journal

2021-09-15
Kuhn auditions a new heroine who has a lot in common with the protagonist of her academic mysteries, most recently The Study of Secrets (2020).

Because her sister, Lucy, hasn’t been able to keep up the special-events schedule that brought in extra money to Starlit Bookshop, new Ph.D. Emma Starrs gives up her chance at college teaching to help her family keep their store going. Fortune seems to favor them when much-married Tabitha Baxter, Emma’s mean-girl nemesis back in high school, arrives at their store complaining that her mystery-night party planner has gone AWOL. Thinking that this gig could solve their problems, Emma offers to facilitate the party. Apart from the inevitable sniping from Tabitha and her equally mean friends, things go well until Tabitha’s latest husband, a college dean, is murdered in the middle of the party, leaving Emma and her aunt, a college professor and mystery writer, as suspects. Although Emma has no motive, Nora, who teaches at the college where Tip Baxter was a dean, is in a long-running fight to get the English department moved to a better space. Of course the spouse is always a suspect, but Tabitha’s money and position help shield her despite the fact that she’s awfully friendly with one of her exes. If they’re to clear their names and keep Tabitha’s bad-mouthing from destroying their livelihoods, Emma sees that they may have to solve this murder on their own.

A nice mix of interpersonal relations and a heroine working to sort out the obligatory red herrings.

Kirkus Reviews