A Page Marked for Murder - the fifth Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery

You don't know what the murder weapon was. You don't know who the murderer is. You don't know where the murder took place. So how in the world are you supposed to solve this crime? Well, Lauren Elliott shows readers exactly how it's done in her fifth Beyond the Page Bookstore mystery!  This series has been thoroughly enjoyable from the get-go, and as Elliott continues the series, it's nice to see the characters learn and grow and to the see the cast continue to expand. I still keep hoping that sooner or later Addie and Marc will wake up and see that they were made for each other (not that I have anything against Simon, but to me, Addie and Marc actually fit together better).  Oh, well, that's neither here nor there - for now, I will just follow along as Addie continues her amateur sleuthing adventures...

A Page Marked for Murder brings the mystery closer to home when Addie finds a body behind Martha's bakery next door to her bookstore.  And when the deceased turns out to be the father of Martha's granddaughter - a man with whom she has recently been seen having some very public arguments and about whom Martha told Addie she would take care of - well, let's just say that things do not look good for poor Martha.  Of course, Addie doesn't believe for a second that Martha is the killer, but since all of the circumstantial evidence points to her, Marc and his former-FBI partner, Ryley, focus all of their attention on her ... which leaves Addie free to explore all of the other possibilities.

There are plenty of people with motive.  Brett Palmer was not a popular man by any means. Yes, Martha certainly had reason to hate him - after all, he got her daughter pregnant and then left. But Martha's ex-husband also has issues with him, and he was even seen arguing with him the week before he turns up dead.  But he has an alibi.  Then there is Brett's latest girlfriend, with whom he has an argument the night his body is found.  But she has an alibi.  Then there is that mysterious new man in town, who happens to be dating Addie's cousin, Kalea - he is overheard arguing with Brett's girlfriend about money.  But he also has an alibi.  In fact, every suspect on Addie's whiteboard seems to have an air-tight alibi, except Martha.  Could she have done it?  Addie refuses to believe it and sets about to prove her innocence.

What makes this murder mystery so interesting is that Elliott not only obscures the identity of the killer, but she also makes it difficult to figure out what the murder weapon was and where the murder actually took place.  Without any idea of where it happened or how it happened, Addie, as well as the police, are completely stalled in their ability to track down the killer.  But Addie knows someone who holds the key to figuring it out, if she can only convince him to reveal what he knows!

And, oh, yeah, in the middle of all this, Addie discovers that Martha's granddaughter has possession of a first printing of The Secret Garden that could be worth as much as $25,000.00!  When the book disappears at the same time as Brett Palmer is found murdered, Addie has to wonder if there is a connection.  And if she can figure out who took the book and where it is now, will it lead her to the murderer?

This was definitely a cleverly plotted mystery, and while I began to suspect the real killer about half-way through the book, I had no way to really connect the dots until Addie herself stumbles across the murder weapon (and a rather ingenious one it is! kudos to Elliott for coming up with something this creative!).  So, it was fun to fight off my own frustration in trying to figure out whodunnit right along with Addie, knowing that Martha is innocent but no way to prove it.

And with all of this going on, Elliott does not shy away from addressing the personal lives of her characters, such as Kalea's irresponsibility and lies, as well as the police sergeant's birth right in the middle of Martha's bakery.  Things like this are what keep the stories grounded in reality and help build a very "real" world in which Addie lives, and thus, make it all the more enjoyable for the reader to feel like this is a full, fleshed-out-reality and not just a murder-by-the-numbers mystery with the same old characters in the same old situations book after book.  (And, since Elliott admits in her bio paragraph at the end of the book that she grew up reading Nancy Drew, I'm waiting for the day when Addie gets involved with a mystery where she has to find that elusive first printing of Nancy Drew #10, Password to Larkspur Lane, that most collectors believe to be a phantom printing!)

Can hardly wait to see what Elliott has in store for Addie and her friends in book six!

RATING:  10 small solar garden lighthouses out of 10 for making an unsolvable crime not quite so unsolvable, but definitely a fantastic read!