Publisher: Berkley
Date published:
April
3, 2012
ISBN: 978-0425247037
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Book format: Paperback
Obtained via: Publisher
Reviewed by
name and email address: Gina Ginalrmreviews@gmail.com
Lizzie Turner is working her passion as a reading specialist in
the small town of Ashton Corners. She teaches and assesses reading skills at
the local school by day and spends her evenings at her friend, Molly’s, as part
of a literacy project. As an adjunct to that project she has invited some of
her students to participate in the mystery book club that meets at Molly’s house.
As the members select the upcoming reads one night a stranger bursts into the house
uninvited. He demands to use the phone and then, despite the group’s attempts
to invite him to stay, he abruptly leaves. At the end of the evening the
stranger is found, dead, in his car.
Police Chief Mark Dreyfus is newly back in Ashton Corners after
his time in the Army. Life has thrown some curves at Mark but he is determined
to do a good job as Chief of Police. When the call goes out that a man was
found dead—murdered—at the book club Mark takes the call. There he reconnects
with Lizzie. Well, not that they connected in high school. Mark was a hot shot
football player and Lizzie was lost in her books. That doesn’t mean she didn’t notice
him and she certainly notices him now. While Mark would like to believe Lizzie
and her friends are free from suspicion the lead officer on the case, Amber Craig,
is certain one of the bibliophiles is the killer.
Determined to prove she and her friends are innocent Lizzie
embarks on her own investigation. Before she can get too far some strange
things start to happen including the appearance of a manuscript that sure looks
like someone’s life story. Can she find the killer before he…or she…finds
Lizzie?
Through a good portion of Erika Chase’s A KILLER READ I wondered “where was the editor?” While at the very
least I felt the author should have caught most of the misses in this book the
editor should have been on his or her game. When Andie shows up late to the
book club her appearance is almost lost. At first it sounded like the body was
found outside the house but then we’re told he was in his car. It sounded like
Bob found the body but then the story picks up that Andie did. There were other
areas that the story’s threads seemed to change in mid-stream.
The story was formulaic in a lot of ways—not that that is a bad
thing. Sometimes it’s nice to know what’s coming next and how it is going to work
out. In A KILLER READ for a good
part of the book I felt like the author had made a list of elements that sell
in a cozy and checked them off item by item as she included them. Much was made
of Mark being bald without giving readers any insight as to just what was going
on with him. Some rumination about what happened to him would have made for a
better read. There were points when I wasn’t sure if Molly or Lizzie were the
lead character. I liked Molly quite a
bit and enjoyed her perspectives.
As this was a debut I will continue reading the series to see
where the author takes it. There is always room for growth and there is the potential
for a really fun series from this one.
Because of the recurrence of the church choir and church
references I think this book would appeal to people of a mainstream spiritual
bent or at least choir members. That’s not to say cozy fans won’t enjoy it as
some of the characters are pretty darn interesting.
This is an objective review and not an endorsement of
this book.
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