Bookmarked for Death by Lorna Barrett

Bookmarked for Death by Lorna Barrett
(Booktown Mystery #2)
297 pages / 8 hrs, 24 mins

"Once a struggling town, Stoneham, New Hampshire is now enjoying a renaissance--thanks to booksellers like Tricia Miles, proprietor of Haven't Got a Clue. It's a great place to find a good mystery to read--or to solve...

"To celebrate her bookstore's anniversary, Tricia Miles hosts a book signing for bestselling author Zoe Carter. But the event takes a terrible turn when the author is found dead in the washroom. Before long, both police and reporters are demanding the real story. So far, the author's obnoxious assistant/niece is the only suspect. And with a sheriff who provides more obstacles than answers, Tricia will have to take matters into her own hands--and read between the lines to solve this mystery..."  --from the publisher

On the whole it's not a bad cozy mystery, but if errors in the details bother you then skip this one. For example, if a character complains about having pizza again for supper, then s/he needs to have eaten pizza at least one time prior to that comment. The series is on Hoopla so that makes it convenient to borrow, but I'd prefer to find something else. I gave it three out of five stars.

Murder is Binding by Lorna Barrett

Murder is Binding by Lorna Barrett
(Booktown Mystery #1)
281 pages / 8 hrs, 33 mins

"The streets of Stoneham, New Hampshire, are lined with bookstores...and paved with murder.

"When she moved to Stoneham, city slicker Tricia Miles met nothing but friendly faces. And when she opened her mystery bookstore, she met friendly competition. But when she finds Doris Gleason dead in her own cookbook store, killed by a carving knife, the atmosphere seems more cutthroat than cordial. Someone wanted to get their hands on the rare cookbook that Doris had recently purchased and the locals think that someone is Tricia. To clear her name, Tricia will have to take a page out of one of her own mysteries and hunt down someone who isn't killing by the book."    --from the publisher

This is a great little cozy mystery, and it's the first book I've read that is set in New Hampshire. I'm looking forward to the next in the series.

Past Tense by Lee Child

Past Tense: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child --- 382 pages

Jack Reacher drifts into a small, unremarkable  New Hampshire town called Laconia and --- inevitably --- walks straight into trouble in this 23rd entry in the best selling series.  This time though there is a personal connection: Laconia was where Reacher’s father, Stan, grew up, until he enlisted in the Marines and never looked back.  Reacher knows almost nothing about his father's past or his family, so this is a chance to see what he can find out, if for no other reason than he may never get another opportunity.

Coincidentally, not too far away, a young Canadian couple in a broken down car stumble on an isolated motel being refurbished by four friendly young men who offer to help them out. Too late the Canadians --- Patty Sundstrom and her boy friend Shorty Fleck --- discover Mark Reacher and his friends have big plans for them.

Patty and Shorty are not just stock victims for Reacher to save, however. They’re interesting characters in their own right, determined to save themselves. Their part of the story has an urgency that is missing from the more leisurely exposition of Reacher's search through old census records and property files to find his father's family home at an old, abandoned tin mine operation called Ryantown. The suspense builds as the reader watches the the two plot lines converge. The climax is brief, brutal and intensely satisfying to that atavistic sense of justice that lives in the hindbrain.

At the end of the story Reacher finally finds the answers he was looking for, when a Laconia detective puts him in touch with an old man who was a cousin of his father. Someone who can tell him what his father was like as a boy, and why he left Laconia behind.

"He was a nice person, back when that meant something. But you better not mess with his sense of right and wrong. Underneath he was a bomb waiting to go off. . . He had a rule. If you did a bad thing, he would make sure you only did it once. Whatever it took. He was a good fighter, and he was brave as a lunatic."

The apple didn't fall far from the tree.

Click HERE for the * review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE for the review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE for a review from the UK Independent.

Click HERE for a review from the New York Journal of Books.

Click HERE to view a Youtube trailer for Past Tense.