Mind Over Murder
A Raven’s Nest Bookstore Series #1
Allison Kingsley

Berkley Prime Crime
September 2011/ 978-0-425-24377-0
Mystery / Cozy
Amazon

Reviewed by Laura Hinds

Clara Quinn has left New York City and returned to her hometown of Finn’s Harbor. She’s living with her mother for now, while making an attempt at finding an apartment and starting over. Her cousin, Stephanie Quinn Dowd begs her to come to work at her bookstore, Raven’s Nest, and although reluctant, Clara agrees.

Clara is gifted, or perhaps cursed, with what is known as the Quinn Sense, which allows her to peer into the future and makes her hyper-aware of what others are really thinking. When a neighboring store owner is murdered in the back room of Raven’s Nest, and Molly, another of Stephanie’s employees is the chief suspect, Clara agrees to try to use her Quinn Sense to find the real killer.

I like the mystery in this book; it is well plotted and executed. The characters are likeable and I do hope that they are developed more in future books. The bookstore atmosphere made me feel at home, as did the small town of Finn’s Harbor, somewhere in New England.

Unfortunately, at least in my humble opinion, there were too many times when I felt that Clara and Stephanie were reckless and put themselves in danger. It was mentioned often that they should talk to Dan, the local police chief, and then talked themselves out of doing so. Then, just as things with the murderer were about to reach a head, not only was Dan out of town, they didn’t trust the other police officers and no one even suggested picking up the phone to call Dan. Why would the Chief of Police go out of town during a murder investigation in his town? It just didn’t ring true for me. On top of that, Clara knew who the killer was and didn’t even tell Stephanie.

I did like the book, despite my misgivings about some details though, and I will read the next book and hope for improvement. The author did do a good job creating the murder mystery, and readers who enjoy a small town cozy mystery with a bookstore atmosphere should like it too. The premise is a good one, the book is a fast read, and lays the groundwork for a potentially fun new series.

Reviews of other titles in this series

Mind Over Murder #1
Trouble Vision #3
Extra Sensory Deception #4