Verse and Vengeance
A Magical Bookshop Mystery
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- €14.99
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- €14.99
Publisher Description
USA Today bestselling author and Agatha Award winner Amanda Flower turns the charm up to ten in her fourth Magical Bookshop mystery.
With the help of Walt Whitman's works, magical bookshop owner Violet Waverly puts her pedal to the metal to sleuth a bicycle-race murder that tests her mettle.
A bicycle race is not Charming Books proprietor Violet Waverly's idea of a pleasant pastime. But police chief David Rainwater wheelie wants them to enter the Tour de Cascade as a couple, so she reluctantly consents.
The Tour de Cascade is the brainchild of Violet's Grandma Daisy. The race is a fundraiser to build the Cascade Springs Underground Railroad Museum. But not everyone in this Niagara Region village supports the race. As if the bike race weren't tiring enough, pesky private investigator Joel Redding is snooping around Charming Books. It takes all of Violet's and Grandma Daisy's ingenuity to keep Redding from discovering the shop's magical essence--which communicates with Violet through books.
When Redding perishes in an accident during the race, David discovers that the brake line of the private eye's bike was cut. Worse, Violet tops his list of suspects. As Emerson the tuxedo cat and resident crow Faulkner look on, Charming Books steers Violet to the works of Walt Whitman to solve the crime. But no other names ring a bell as culprits, and as David's investigation picks up speed, Violet will have to get in gear to clear her name.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Agatha-winner Flower's whimsical fourth Magical Bookshop mystery (after Murders and Metaphors), Violet Waverly, the proprietor of Charming Books, a bookstore built around a magical tree in Cascade Springs, N.Y., agrees to take part in a fund-raising bicycle race at the urging of her police chief boyfriend, David Rainwater. When Joel Redding, a curious PI who visited the store, has a fatal accident during the race, a copy of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass is found in his bike's backpack. Vi throws herself into what soon becomes a murder investigation, fearful that Redding had learned her big secret that the supernatural essence of Charming Books can convey book recommendations to customers. Vi's important relationships with Rainwater, her grandmother, and a cat named Emerson tend to overshadow the plot, which is attenuated to begin with. Armchair detectives have few clues to guide them to the unexpected d nouement. This one's for those who like some esoteric literary history and don't mind a pinch of magic in their cozies.
