Quick Synopsis – Madeline Brimley left small town Georgia many years ago to go to college and pursue her dreams on the stage. When she gets word that not only has her beloved, eccentric Aunt Rose passed, but she’s left Madeline her equally eccentric bookstore housed in an old Victorian mansion in the small college town of Enigma. When she arrives in her beat-up Fiat to claim The Old Juniper Bookstore, and restart her life, Madeline is faced with unexpected challenges and a murder to solve.

Song This Reminds Me Of – Cool Cat Blues by Georgie Fame

Publication Date – Dec. 10, 2024

Content Notes – There is some violence and blood throughout the book. There are also a few counts of arson, misogynism, mention of cooking meth, and death of parents (off page).

Rating – ⭐⭐⭐ out of 5

Review – Why, in the year of our lord 2024, would an actress not have a cellphone? Madeline Brimley is the main character and is only in her mid-thirties. It makes no sense that as a professional actor she wouldn’t have a cell phone. I get that this was used as a plot device, but the author could have just given her a dead phone! It served no point other than to make her a little quirky. And obviously make me mad.

This is a quick southern mystery, and it was a fun read. This is easily something you could finish in a day and does have enough red herrings to keep you interested. As a person from a small southern college town, a lot of the daily interactions Madeline has in the book rung familiar and true to me. I thought the author did a good job building a community and complex characters. It would have been easy to create southern caricatures or poke fun at small town life, but I thought this was a good reflection on what it’s like being in a small town.

There was a lot of build up the central mystery of the book that was a little lackluster to me. I almost would have preferred it if there wasn’t a murder, and the story was focused on the arson and building the main cast of characters out a little bit. The author clearly took a lot of care and time to build out potential plots for future books, but I felt like that was almost detrimental. As the reader I felt like I had too many strings I was still holding. Like the main mystery was solved, but the personal mysteries had no resolution.

I would recommend this book if you like a good quick mystery.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press Minotaur Books for the early copy, all opinions are my own.