BOOKED ON MURDER by Allison Brook

Fiction, Cozy Mystery

5****

Blurb: Librarian Carrie Singleton must catch a killer before she can say “I do” in the 8th delightful installment in Agatha Award-nominee Allison Brook’s Haunted Library mystery series. Carrie Singleton is ready to kiss the single life goodbye. Her wedding to Dylan Avery is just a few weeks away, and a happy ending is about to be hers. But when a body is found on the lawn of their wedding venue, happily-ever-after is looking deadlier than ever. The victim turns out to be Billy Carpenter, a young man recently released from prison after serving time for a bank robbery. The stolen money he’d buried is gone and Carrie and the police suspect Billy’s two alleged co-conspirators, his friends Luke Rizzo and Tino Valdez. But then Luke is murdered and Tino is nowhere to be found. With no leads and only a week to go before her big day, Carrie is on the hunt for clues. She hopes to wrap up this investigation with a neat bow before she and Dylan tie the knot. Carrie has something old, something new, and something borrowed ready for her walk down the aisle. Now she needs to find the killer without becoming the ‘something blue.’

Thoughts: This is the eighth book in the “Haunted Library” series, which was unfortunate for me as I have not read the first seven. But…I will be! Actually, being the last in the series meant mostly that I was a bit confused at the beginning since I wasn’t sure who exactly all the people were and what their connections were, but the author quickly caught me up and I was soon invested in the story and the characters.

Carrie works in the library and they recently came across a diary from the 1600s of a woman who was hung as a witch. The diary becomes the focus of an argument between those who think it should stay in the library, a man who believes it to be false and should be destroyed, and a descendant who things it should be hers. In addition, there are several people in town who were involved in a bank robbery years ago and are now looking for the money from that robbery. Both mysteries are tied together—along with the two dead bodies. And poor Carrie is just trying to get through the days to her wedding!

This all might sound chaotic, but it’s not. It does all tie together neatly in the end and Carrie manages to get married to her handsome Dylan and, supposedly, everyone lives happily ever after.

I really enjoyed this story, even with my confusion in the beginning. I know I’ll look for more from this author – and will look forward to reading the rest of this series!

Recommended.