Library Lover’s Mystery, #11
My Review
This is book 11 in the Library Lover’s Mystery series. Lindsey is the MC and she’s the library director at the Briar Creek library. After planning what she and Sully hoped would be a small wedding, Lindsey finds out she mistakenly gave the wrong list to the person who prepared and sent out the invitations, to what seems to be most of the townfolks. Much fretting takes place since it is winter and the wedding is set to take place on Bell Island, a small island off the coast where Sully’s parents live. To make matters worse, a week before their wedding is to take place, Lindsey and Sully find Steve Briggs dead on the coast of Bell Island. This is a problem since he was to officiate their wedding.
Thankfully Lindsey and Sully have wonderful families and friends since other than worrying about the size of the wedding and interviewing wedding officiants, Lindsey and Sully spend most of their time trying to figure out how and why Steve Briggs died, then once it was official, solving the murder. Steve was a long-time friend of Sully’s, so he’s obviously distressed and is right there at Lindsey’s side from the beginning to help solve the murder.
The mystery had some interesting twists that highlight how sometimes we really don’t know the people we think we know. Steve Briggs appeared to have it all when he was alive. He was boisterous, outgoing, wealthy, and generally well thought of. As the mystery unfolds, some of Steve’s shortcomings get discovered and we begin to realize there are a number of good suspects to point fingers at.
Consistent with the rest of the series is the solid plot and great characters, both new to the series and old. Plenty of humor is served up alongside the discovery of Steve and his family’s private world.
As far as a series where the MC gets married, I enjoyed this one more than most. Perhaps because a lot of the prep happens in the background and what happens in the foreground was mostly humorous and/or heartwarming.
I did a better job guessing who would be the replacement officiant than I did picking the guilty party, but neither was a big surprise. The fun was all in the journey of getting there.
All in all, I thought this was a solid cozy and I will definitely be reading book 12 (and very likely any future installments). I enjoy the characters in this series and look forward to hearing more about the goings-on in Briar Creek.
Goodreads Blurb
Wedding bells are ringing in the latest page-turning Library Lover’s Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of Word to the Wise.
Love is in the air in Briar Creek as library director Lindsey Norris and boat captain Mike (Sully) Sullivan are finally tying the knot. The entire town is excited for the happy day, and Lindsey and Sully’s plan for a small wedding evaporates as more and more people insist upon attending the event of the year.
When Lindsey and her crafternoon pals head out to Bell Island to see if it can accommodate the ever-expanding guest list, they are horrified to discover a body washed up on the rocky shore. Even worse, Lindsey recognizes the man as the justice of the peace who was supposed to officiate her wedding ceremony. When it becomes clear he was murdered, Lindsey can’t help but wonder if it had to do with the wedding. Now she has to book it to solve the mystery before it ends her happily ever after before it’s even begun.