Bookmarked
for Murder by V. M Burns is the fifth book in the Mystery
Bookshop series, one of three the author writes. Many of the
amateur sleuths in this series are not young at heart, which
adds to the plot.
“I write three series, and this one is from the “Mystery
Bookshop series.” It has a story within a story with
a contemporary murder and a historical cozy mystery. The protagonist
has two poodle dogs, Snickers and Oreo, but they do not play
a role in the plot. BTW: the dogs on the cover are actually
my dogs. I also write a series, “RJ Franklin’s
Mysteries” that is set in the fictious town of St. Joseph
Indiana, based on my hometown of South Bend Indiana. This
combines a police procedural with culinary soul food recipes.
The other series is my “Dog Club Mysteries” where
the protagonist, Lilly, is a woman whose husband divorced
her after twenty-five years of marriage. In the first book,
she is accused of murdering her husband but is subsequently
cleared. This series will be the next book that is published
in August. It is titled Paw and Order that has Lilly and the
dog club traveling to a dog show. It is a fundraiser for a
rescue organization in Tennessee. Unfortunately, an eccentric
millionaire is murdered at the event and Lilly tries to find
out who did it.”
The story begins with bookshop owner and historical novelist
Sam Washington returning home to North Harbor, Michigan, on
a chartered bus. Along for the ride is her grandmother Nana
Jo and her gal pals Irma, Dorothy, and Ruby Mae from Shady
Acres Retirement Village. Also on the bus is Irma’s
current boyfriend, Max Franck, a Pulitzer prize-winning author.
He is found murdered on the bus during a pit stop, and some
wonder if his death has anything to do with his next book
that reveals more information on the assassination of Robert
Kennedy. Now Sam’s feisty grandmother, and the quirky
retirement village friends, Irma, Dorothy, and Ruby Mae, help
Sam try to solve the murder.
“My desire was to write a story where a murder takes
place within a closed environment, such as a train, plane,
or bus. The suspect pool will be limited. I got the idea from
my personal experience. Having grown up in South Bend, Indiana,
around the holidays, there were bus shopping trips to the
bigger cities like Chicago and Detroit. All someone has to
do is pay about $20 to shop all day and take the bus home.
I thought, what if there is a murder that takes place on the
bus.”
Both Samantha and her grandmother use their personalities
to connect the dots to find the killer. Samantha, is strong,
intelligent, curious, and gifted with a strong intuition for
solving mysteries, while her grandmother is no-nonsense and
feisty.
Samantha also uses some skills she has collected as a mystery
writer to help her solve the crime. She is writing an English
historical cozy mystery that takes place in the 1930s in the
countryside of England, providing the reader a story within
a story. “At some point, I would like to write a whole
book with a British cozy mystery. In this book, I thought
how WWII is a good time period because it is so intriguing.
To tie them together, I did some research and found out that
Joseph Kennedy was Ambassador to the UK around WWII and with
the contemporary mystery the person killed was writing a book
about the conspiracy surrounding RFK’s death.”
This mystery within a mystery concept is a nice touch. There
is a good dose of humor, wit, and humility in this book. A
welcome addition to the story is the quirky characters that
make the novel fun to read.
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