On This Page
Description
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 show more of her own mysteries-and hunt down someone who isn't killing by the book. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Ugh. I wasn't thrilled with this book from the first page where the protagonist immediately comes off as catty towards other women. But hoping it would be a minor issue, I pressed on because I'm always a sucker for a bookish cozy mystery. I really shouldn't have. The protagonist appears to have NO women friends (or really any friends), is internally judgmental about everyone, and more than once internally refers to her one staff member in her bookshop as "the help." *cringe* And age can't be an excuse as the book was published in 2008. What made me immediately close this ebook and send it back to the library though was that after discovering the murder victim has a daughter with Down's syndrome, in passing the information on to another show more character, she used the "r" word. And that was it. I'm done. Not at all recommended. show less
Just before starting this book, I had to give up on a cozy mystery that I could not get interested in but after reading the first page of Murder is Binding by Lorna Barrett, I knew that right away that I was hooked. I can always count on wonderful quirky characters, a mystery full of twists, great dialogues and a place where I would love to live and interact with the characters. Lorna Bartlett never ever lets me down!
Trisha Miles is recently divorced moves to Stoneham, New Hampshire and wants a new beginning in her life. So she starts up a mystery book shop. She already has one employee, Ginny Wilson and a charming and dependable customer who never buys but always shows up on time, Mr. Everett. She has a love/hate (stronger on the hate) show more relationship with her older sister, Angelica, who announces that she is moving to Stoneham. We learn a lot about the background of their relationship.
Next door to Trisha’s shop is Doris Gleason’s Cook Book Store. When Trisha first meets her, she is pushing for organizing a protest for the high rents for the shops. Trisha finds her dead with a kitchen knife in her back. For some reason to be figured out later, the sheriff thinks that Trisha did it. More characters are introduced but as the events roll on, the town people starts to believe that the sheriff is right, except of course for those closest to her.
The mystery is engaging and good and evil struggle on these pages. There several typical several family situations that the characters have to deal with.
I highly recommend Murder is Binding and have already added the other books in this series to my wish list. show less
Trisha Miles is recently divorced moves to Stoneham, New Hampshire and wants a new beginning in her life. So she starts up a mystery book shop. She already has one employee, Ginny Wilson and a charming and dependable customer who never buys but always shows up on time, Mr. Everett. She has a love/hate (stronger on the hate) show more relationship with her older sister, Angelica, who announces that she is moving to Stoneham. We learn a lot about the background of their relationship.
Next door to Trisha’s shop is Doris Gleason’s Cook Book Store. When Trisha first meets her, she is pushing for organizing a protest for the high rents for the shops. Trisha finds her dead with a kitchen knife in her back. For some reason to be figured out later, the sheriff thinks that Trisha did it. More characters are introduced but as the events roll on, the town people starts to believe that the sheriff is right, except of course for those closest to her.
The mystery is engaging and good and evil struggle on these pages. There several typical several family situations that the characters have to deal with.
I highly recommend Murder is Binding and have already added the other books in this series to my wish list. show less
The start of a new cozy mystery series set in in New Hampshire. Tricia Miles owns Haven't Got a Clue, a mystery bookshop in a small book oriented village, when the annoying bookseller next door is found murdered in her cookbook bookstore, Tricia finds herself the prime suspect. To make matters more complicated, her annoying older sister is on town and won't leave her alone. Tricia decides she must put her sleuthing skills to the test so she can clear her name and get back to bookselling. Her sister Angelica decides to tag along and the two have to get along and work together. Fun, fluffy, and fairly predictable.
In which it is shown, that it takes more than a bookshop (even a mystery bookshop!), a cat and some recipes to make a good murder mystery. Sigh. This isn't it.
A typical "cozy" mystery which has the owner of a used bookstore being accused of murder. She has the requisite cat, and her sister, whom she loathes, is the one with the recipes. Possibly this would be just the book for folks who love cozy mysteries, but I cut my teeth on Rex Stout, Dorothy L. Sayers and Ellis Peters, so it was not a satisfactory read for me. The characters grated, and the topics were banal. After the first 50 pages, I skipped to the end to see if I was missing anything. I was not.
A typical "cozy" mystery which has the owner of a used bookstore being accused of murder. She has the requisite cat, and her sister, whom she loathes, is the one with the recipes. Possibly this would be just the book for folks who love cozy mysteries, but I cut my teeth on Rex Stout, Dorothy L. Sayers and Ellis Peters, so it was not a satisfactory read for me. The characters grated, and the topics were banal. After the first 50 pages, I skipped to the end to see if I was missing anything. I was not.
Stoneham, NH has come up with a unique way of renewing their mainstreet. The town has decided to cater to booksellers, creating a street filled with stores, each denoting a different genre. Still a newcomer in town, Haven't Got A Clue owner Tricia Miles becomes the number one suspect in a neighboring bookstore owner's death. Tricia, helped by her employees and sister, decides to look into things on her own. I was excited to find another good cozy series this summer and look forward to more from the "Booktown" area.
Tricia Miles recently moved to Stoneham (the Safest City in New Hampshire) to open a mystery bookstore - one such niche bookstore in an area ripe with them. In fact, many credit bookstores with revitalising the Stoneham economy. Tour buses come to the area several times a day, business is booming, and Tricia is happy with her post-divorce life.
Next door to her store (Haven't Got a Clue) is a cookbook store owned by Doris Gleason, who is despised by pretty much everyone in town. Doris has been in lease negotiations and has been trying to get her business neighbours to collectively bargain with the owner with the buildings. However, for various reasons, they all balk. But not for long because she's killed soon after the book opens.
Tricia show more is suspected because she was the last to see Doris alive. Then the suspicion grows because a valuable book that Doris had on display in her bookstore (the first cookbook published in the country) is found in Tricia's bookstore. Since the Stoneham sheriff doesn't seem too interested in looking for actual suspects (and there are PLENTY), Tricia puts her forensic knowledge (picked up from reading myriad mystery and forensic books throughout the years) to use and does her own investigative work.
There is a funny subplot in which someone keeps putting informative tracts for a nudist camp in Tricia's stock, and neither Tricia nor her assistant Ginny can figure out who. They suspect Mr. Everett, the elderly man who comes to the store every day and browses books all day but rarely buys anything.
And in this book we also meet Tricia's sister who has just separated from her husband and is looking for a do-over on her life.
This is the first book in a series, and it left me wanting to read the others as quickly as possible. Although the idea that Tricia could actually solve a murder more competently than the sheriff simply by reading murder mysteries was a bit funny, in this day and age of CSI, L&O, and so many other procedurals on television as well as people who read Grisham, Connelly, Lescroart, etc., it was a feeling with which I'm sure many people could identify.
The characters seemed real and the timing of the reveal of the "whodunit" was just right. On to "Bookmarked for Death"! show less
Next door to her store (Haven't Got a Clue) is a cookbook store owned by Doris Gleason, who is despised by pretty much everyone in town. Doris has been in lease negotiations and has been trying to get her business neighbours to collectively bargain with the owner with the buildings. However, for various reasons, they all balk. But not for long because she's killed soon after the book opens.
Tricia show more is suspected because she was the last to see Doris alive. Then the suspicion grows because a valuable book that Doris had on display in her bookstore (the first cookbook published in the country) is found in Tricia's bookstore. Since the Stoneham sheriff doesn't seem too interested in looking for actual suspects (and there are PLENTY), Tricia puts her forensic knowledge (picked up from reading myriad mystery and forensic books throughout the years) to use and does her own investigative work.
There is a funny subplot in which someone keeps putting informative tracts for a nudist camp in Tricia's stock, and neither Tricia nor her assistant Ginny can figure out who. They suspect Mr. Everett, the elderly man who comes to the store every day and browses books all day but rarely buys anything.
And in this book we also meet Tricia's sister who has just separated from her husband and is looking for a do-over on her life.
This is the first book in a series, and it left me wanting to read the others as quickly as possible. Although the idea that Tricia could actually solve a murder more competently than the sheriff simply by reading murder mysteries was a bit funny, in this day and age of CSI, L&O, and so many other procedurals on television as well as people who read Grisham, Connelly, Lescroart, etc., it was a feeling with which I'm sure many people could identify.
The characters seemed real and the timing of the reveal of the "whodunit" was just right. On to "Bookmarked for Death"! show less
A small New Hampshire town has reinvented itself as “booktown” – setting up a variety of used book stores and specialty shops on the formerly decaying Main Street. One of these is “Haven’t Got a Clue,” owned and operated by newcomer Tricia Miles, and specializing in mystery books. When Tricia finds a neighboring shop’s owner murdered, she quickly finds herself the chief suspect. Now she has to find who really committed the murder in order to clear her name.
It’s a promising set up for a cozy mystery. Tricia’s sister also makes an appearance as the “clueless” sidekick, and there are plenty of handsome, rich men about to lend some romantic interest. The problem is that Barrett’s writing is so hackneyed. I’m show more supposed to believe that a level-headed business woman like Tricia will actually “giggle” on meeting one of the local hunks for the first time? Really? Barrett also throws in a meddlesome cat, and a sister who is a gourmet cook (so, of course, she has to include the recipes). The author seems to have lost focus. Perhaps other books in the series get better, but I’m not sure I’ll even try them. show less
It’s a promising set up for a cozy mystery. Tricia’s sister also makes an appearance as the “clueless” sidekick, and there are plenty of handsome, rich men about to lend some romantic interest. The problem is that Barrett’s writing is so hackneyed. I’m show more supposed to believe that a level-headed business woman like Tricia will actually “giggle” on meeting one of the local hunks for the first time? Really? Barrett also throws in a meddlesome cat, and a sister who is a gourmet cook (so, of course, she has to include the recipes). The author seems to have lost focus. Perhaps other books in the series get better, but I’m not sure I’ll even try them. show less
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
Series to Try Out
92 works; 1 member
Books - Barrett, Lorna: Booktown Mysteries
19 works; 1 member
Author Information
103+ Works 8,066 Members
Some Editions
Series
Work Relationships
Is contained in
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 2008-04-01
- People/Characters
- Tricia Miles (Patricia, owns Haven't Got a Clue mystery bookshop); Angelica Miles (Tricia's bossy 5 yrs-older sister, divorcing, her 4th husband, Drew Prescott ); Doris Gleason (owner, The Cookery bookshop); Ginny Wilson (lithe redhead in her 20s, Tricia's employee); Frannie Mae Armstrong (works at the Chamber of Commerce); Mr. Everett (regularly patronizes Haven't Got a Clue, former grocery store owner) (show all 25); Bob Kelly (head of Stoneham's Chamber of Commerce & owner of Kelly's Realty); Mike Harris (independent insurance agent running for selectman); Wendy Adams (sheriff, says Stoneham hasn't had a killing in about 60 years); Russ Smith (editor, 'Stoneham Weekly News'); Bess (Brookview Inn receptionist); Deborah Black (owns the Happy Domestic shop, pregnant); Winnie Wentworth (sort of combination bag lady & antiques picker); Deputy Jim Placer; Deirdre Gleason (Doris' sister); Christopher (ex-NYC stockbroker now in Colorado, Trish's ex-husband, over the phone); Grace Harris (widow of Jason, granddaughter of Letty & Roddy, Mike Harris' mother); Martha (a nurse at St. Godelive); Roger Livingston (nephew of Grace Harris' lawyer, Harold Lingston); Ed (of Ed's -- really great food); Mrs. Barton (a local woman who thinks she's witty); Mrs. Grant (another local woman who wants to glimpse Tricia); Mrs. Richardson (a serious collector from the Hamptons); Euginia (college-age waitress at the Bookshelf Diner); Miss Marple (Tricia Miles' gray cat)
- Important places
- Stoneham, New Hampshire, USA (fictional village); Haven't Got a Clue Bookstore, 221 Main Street, Stoneham, New Hampshire, USA; The Cookery Bookshop, Stoneham, New Hampshire, USA; Brookview Inn, Stoneham, New Hampshire, USA; Stoneham's Chamber of Commerce, Stoneham, New Hampshire, USA (in what was the sales office of a company selling log homes); The Bookshelf Diner, Stoneham, New Hampshire, USA (show all 10); The Harris House, Stoneham, New Hampshire, USA (Mike's mother's, that is); St. Godelive Assisted Living Center, Benwell, New Hampshire, USA; Livingston, Baker, and Smith, Route 101 A, right off the Oval, Milford, New Hampshire, USA (legal firm, in a restored Victorian); Ed's, New Hampshire, USA (great food in a shack, up on the highway, east of Milford)
- Dedication
- For Valerie Bartlett
Thank you for introducing me to the wonderful world of mystery novels. - First words
- 'I tell you, Trish, we're
all victims.' - Quotations
- Tricia turned away. 'I'm starving. I haven't had a thing to eat since breakfast. Where's the bakery bag? There must be a few cookies left.'
'Sorry,' Angelica apologized. 'I ate the last one just before you came bac... (show all)k.'
Suddenly fratricide seemed like a wonderful solution to all life's problems. (chapter 21) - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)'Not bad for the village jinx, huh?'
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 1,185
- Popularity
- 20,985
- Reviews
- 74
- Rating
- (3.44)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 12
- ASINs
- 6