Publisher:
Stephen Haunts Ltd

Publication Date:
09/19/2024

Copyright Date:
N/A

ISBN:
9781068720925

Binding:
eBook Only

U.S. SRP:
2.99

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THE BOOKSHOP MYSTERIES: A BITTER PILL

By S. A. Reeves

IR_Star-black
IR Rating:
4.0
Briskly plotted and charming, S.A. Reeves’s THE BOOKSHOP MYSTERIES: A BITTER PILL is a delight by and for murder mystery aficionados.
IR Approved
Gemma and Mavis are hoping to give their bookshop a shot in the arm by beginning a series of author events. But when their inaugural reader perishes in front of a shocked audience, the pair puts its whodunit instincts to work finding the culprit.

The Bookworm Bookshop is a cozy fixture in the Derbyshire town of Belper, but business has been lackluster—especially as online vendors cut into brick-and-mortar profits. Stuck in a rut, owner Gemma and her friend Mavis propose an author event with local celebrity Dominic Westley, whose book has instantly become a critical darling. But an untimely death dashes those plans, sending Gemma and Mavis on the hunt for a murderer—calling on all their knowledge of great detective fiction.

S.A. Reeves’s first in a planned series of Bookshop Mysteries, A BITTER PILL starts off strong with immense clarity of vision: it’s a classic setup in which two well-meaning and clever women busybody their way into solving a murder in a small town in the UK—with a wink toward the protagonists’ self-awareness as consumers of murder mysteries. There’s nothing here interrogating the form or redefining the genre, and there doesn’t have to be. A BITTER PILL feels almost mathematically well-structured, with two solid protagonists, three prime suspects, and a climax in which all the key players are brought together for the final reveal. A certain brand of demanding murder-mystery readers might get bored with this—note that this reviewer, for instance, though not an experienced reader in the genre, managed to spot the murderer from fairly early on—but the structure is rapidly established and the plot clips along, making it a fun, fast-paced read.

There is certainly room to expand. The reader can infer the look and feel of Belper from genre and context clues, but a few moments—when “the languid rooftops of Belper [are] bathed in a gentle, golden glow,” for instance—suggest the prose could profit from more thorough descriptive language. A BITTER PILL’s sense of humor also deserves more attention; the text shines in a few hilarious and relatable turns, like when the local chess club complains that it has to find a new venue after it was double-booked with “a rather raucous knitting circle,” but these lighter passages seem to fall by the wayside as the plot draws closer to its conclusion. Overall, however, these are quibbles about the first in a planned series. The Bookshop Mysteries series has plenty of time ahead of it to address these options, and it’s already surmounted the greatest challenge: establishing itself with a tight, solid first entry.

As cozy and personable as its eponymous bookshop, A BITTER PILL is perfect for readers who know exactly what they want: a BBC-style murder mystery with small-town personalities navigating small-town concerns while drinking plenty of tea and coffee along the way.

Briskly plotted and charming, S.A. Reeves’s THE BOOKSHOP MYSTERIES: A BITTER PILL is a delight by and for murder mystery aficionados.

~Dan Accardi for IndieReader

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