Poisoned Pages

Tricia Miles is finally settled in her post-fire renovated apartment above her mystery bookstore, Haven't Got A Clue, and is hosting a housewarming party when one of her guests suffers an allergic reaction to some food and ends up dying. It turns out that the food the victim ate was poisoned with an item that he was deathly allergic to. Was Tricia responsible or was someone else to blame?

While Tricia is trying to deal with this murder and trying to clear herself of any fault, her sister Angelica is dealing with a blackmailer.

This series is so much fun and has great characters that just keep getting better!

Tricia's bookstore suffered a fire. As part of its reopening, she hosts on open house. A guest dies after consuming a tainted hors d'oeuvres. Tricia's sister Angelica attempts resuscitation. The mystery's story line feels secondary or even tertiary to Tricia's efforts to succeed her sister as Chamber of Commerce president, vandalism along main street, and bugs being planted. They tie in, but the reader almost forgets what caused the problem in the first place. The story, while enjoyable, is a bit too "all over the place," and the mystery suffers. The police took too much of a back seat, and in a small town, they should have been encountered more often without being called. I've only read a few installments in the series, but I feel the show more author's enthusiasm for the series declining in this installment. show less

This was better then the last entry in the series but I'm just going to read one more and if it doesn't improve, I'll drop the series. My problem with the book, the murder mystery is hardly part of the plot, the book business is hardly used at all. The plot revolves around running multiple businesses, small town politics and a small amount of Trish's dating life. In the beginning of the series, the book business played a large part of the book, it's the reason I started the series to begin with.

Tricia’s store has finally reopened from the fire and she has updated her apartment upstairs. She’s having a housewarming and one of the guests dies after eating an appetizer made by Tricia. Angelicia tries to save him by doing the Heimlich and CPR but that fails. The town has labelled her as a jinx since she has discovered several bodies and has become the victim of stalking, malicious pranks, nasty graffiti and an illegal bugging device while running for the presidency of the Chamber of Commerce. Nice sideline stories with Angelica, Pixie, Mr. Everett and a new store owner.

Read by Karen White
Cozy Mystery
A fast read.

Another great book by Ms. Barrett.