To the Tome of Murder - the seventh Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery

Seven books in, and this series is still as exciting and as fresh as the first book!  Author Lauren Elliott has a way with words and characters that truly draws the reader in, makes the reader care about each and every person in the story, and ultimately has the reader rooting for the villain to be caught and locked away.  Addie Greyborne and her small little world of Greyborne Harbor is like a soap opera in book form, with each book furthering the tale of the lives of Addie, Paige, Serena, Kalea, Simon, Martha, Marc, and the rest of the cast.  With each book I pick up, I can hear in my head, "Previously, at Beyond the Page Bookstore..." and I settle right in to finding out what is going to happen next!  And it certainly doesn't hurt that each book, and each murder, somehow connects to a rare and/or collectible book.

To The Tome of Murder is set in the autumn, with Thanksgiving just around the corner.  This would mean that it's been approximately three years since Addie moved to Greyborne Harbor and opened her bookstore, since Murder by the Book (book one) was set in the autumn, Prologue to Murder (book two) was set in the Spring, Murder in the First Edition (book three) was set at Christmas, Proof of Murder (book four) was set in the summer, A Page Marked for Murder (book five) was set at New Year's time, and Under the Cover of Murder (book six) was set in late Spring.  And I guess this is a good thing, because seven murders over the course of three years is probably not that horrible of a statistic for a small town, all depending on the actual size of the town.  (Am I the only one who actually keeps track of these things?  Does that make me weird?)

Anyway, this time around, the murder mystery hits very close to home for Addie, because it is her cousin's boyfriend who is murdered!   The town is all abuzz about the Civil War-era themed baking competition, and Addie can't seem to keep any books from that era in stock.  In particular, author Sarah Josepha Hale's books seem to be the hot commodity.  The woman in charge of the competition is even on the hunt, looking for a first printing of Hale's famous nursery rhyme, "Mary Had a Little Lamb."  So what in the world does any of that have to do with Kalea's boyfriend?  You know, the one she is living with - the one she had a big fight with and was planning to break up with?  The one who left everything to Kalea upon his death?  Yeah, okay, that definitely sounds like motive for murder, right?  Well, let's add in the fact that he was killed in Kalea's dress shop, located just beneath their apartment, and there are no signs of any break-in and nothing was stolen ... nothing except an old briefcase that he had just gotten from a pawn shop.

In true Elliott style, Addie sticks her nose into the middle of everything, determined to prove her cousin's innocence.  But what happens when even she begins to question Kalea's guilt?  Well, that's when Martha steps up to help ensure her FRIEND doesn't get railroaded into a prison sentence.  Yes, you heard that right.  Martha and Kalea are now friends!  And how does Martha help?  Well, her bakery being gossip central for Greyborne Harbor, she makes it known that anyone who had dealings with Kalea's boyfriend is a suspect, and the next thing you know, half the town is pointing fingers at one another, making it next to impossible for Marc to get any actual investigating done.  This, of course, leaves Addie with plenty of opportunity to do her own investigating.  And, as with all of her mysteries, a rare book is at the dead center of it all!

Now, I'm not going to spoil it, but I will say that the matter of the briefcase was pretty easy to figure out early on, as was a certain case of mistaken identity.  I debated back and forth for a while about the identity of the killer, or even who was the force behind the murder, and I give Elliott credit for keeping me guessing until pretty near the end.  The ultimate revelation actually left me feeling a bit sorry for the killer (not enough to wish them unpunished, but enough to say I can see why they did what they did - or at least, what they thought they had to do).

And as if all of this weren't enough to keep a reader's interest, Elliott gives readers some life-changing surprises for Serena, for Catherine, and for Kalea (aside from the obvious) and reminds everyone that family is more than just blood relation - family is made up of those you love and who are in your life, for better or for worse.  A definite Happy Thanksgiving for Addie and her "family."

RATING:  10 Sweet Treats Ice Cream truck locations out of 10 for showing that not only can words be deadly, but they can be enjoyable to read as well!