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Book Review
Reviewed: 13 January 2024

For Whom the Book Tolls

by: Laura Gail Black

Antique Bookshop Mystery - Book 1

  • Rating: full starfull starfull starfull starstar outline (4/5)

Wow! Some complex backstories and relationships. What a great start to a series. Jenna has had a rough go of it lately and this move to stay with her Uncle Paul, a man she’d not seen since she was a teen, was to be a new start.

Well it is technically a new start, just perhaps not a good one.

Unfortunately, Jenna doesn’t get the chance to get reacquainted with her uncle and she ends up with a bumpy ride in her new town, new life.

Luckily she meets Rita. The warmth the emanates from her, helps with strengthening Jenna for all that is getting thrown at her. There’s some light romance and of course contention with the police.

The theme throughout is second chances. It was very well done without being over-the-top. The characters are well written and I look forward to learning more about them.

The story is set in and around an antique bookstore so there is lots of local history thrown in.

There is some diversity in the characters which is a nice change. I’m curious what’s next for Jenna as things are looking up - for now.

Happy Reading!

Release Date: 8-September-2020
Cozy Mystery, Audiobook, Book Shop Mystery

Plot Summary

In this cozy series debut from Laura Gail Black, Jenna Quinn finds her uncle murdered in his antique bookstore, and Jenna--his primary beneficiary--becomes the prime suspect. 

Trouble follows Jenna Quinn wherever she goes. Fleeing some unsavory doings in her hometown of Charlotte, Jenna accepts her uncle's gracious invitation to stay with him in small-town Hokes Folly, NC. In exchange, she'll help him out in his antiquarian bookstore. But soon after she arrives, Jenna finds her uncle's body crumpled at the base of the staircase between his apartment and the bookstore.

Before the tragedy even sinks in, Jenna learns that she's inherited almost everything her uncle owned: the store and apartment, as well as his not-so-meager savings and the payout from a life insurance policy...which adds up to more than a million dollars. This is all news to Jenna--bad news, once the police get wind of her windfall. An ill wind, indeed, as a second murder cements Jenna's status as the prime suspect in both deaths.

Jenna can hit the road again, taking her chances that she can elude trouble along the way. Or she can stick it out in Hokes Folly, take over the bookstore, and try to sleuth out her uncle's killer. On the one hand, she's made some wonderful new friends, and she feels she can thrive in the genial small-town environment. On the other hand, trouble knows her address--and so does the killer, who is determined to write the final page of Jenna's story.