Prologue to Murder (Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery #2) by Lauren Elliott #bookreview #mystery

Title: Prologue to Murder

Author: Lauren Elliott

Publisher: Kensington

 Publication Date: April 30, 2019

Page Count: 304

My rating: 3 1/2 stars

About the book:

After a career working with rare books at the Boston Public Library, Addie Greyborne is back in her seaside New England hometown—where unfortunately, murder is not so rare . . .
 
Gossip columnists love a bold-faced name—but “Miss Newsy” at Greyborne Harbor’s local paper seems to specialize in bald-faced lies. She’s pointed a finger of suspicion at Addie after librarian June Winslow never makes it home from a book club meeting. And when June’s found at the bottom of a steep flight of stairs, Addie’s not only dealing with a busybody, but a dead body.

It’s a good thing the guy she’s dating is the police chief. But both the case and her love life get more complicated when a lanky blonde reporter from Los Angeles shows up. She’s trying her hardest to drive a wedge between the couple . . . as if Addie doesn’t have enough problems dealing with angry townspeople. Despite all the rumors, Addie doesn’t know a thing about the murder—but she plans to find out. And the key may lie in a book about pirate legends that June published. Now she just has to hunt down the clues before she becomes a buried treasure herself . . .

Prologue to Murder by Lauren Elliott is the second installment of the cozy Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery series. Each book of this series contains it’s own mystery to solve so they could be read as standalones or out of  order. However, one would get to know the characters better reading the series in order.

In the first book of this series, Murder by the Book, readers were introduced to Addison Greyborne who had returned to her hometown, a small New England town that had been named for her ancestors back in Colonial times. Addie was still recovering from the murder of her finace, her father dying in a tragic accident and then had found out a long lost aunt had also died but left her whole estate to Addie.

Addie’s inheritance had given her the opportunity to start over and continue to work with books after leaving her job at the Boston Public Library. With her aunt having so many rare books in her collection and the funds to open a shop Addie decided to open Beyond the Page bookstore despite not everyone in town being overly welcoming. And now Addie finds herself in the middle of her second murder mystery when she is accused of the crime by the town gossip.

This series really has a bit of a romantic suspense vibe to it although it’s mostly a cozy with Addie having a relationship formed with the local lawman, Marc. What puts it more towards a cozy though is Addie doing most of the crime solving putting Marc in with the incompetent cozy police category. The characters have been likable enough although this time around we may be headed into love triangle territory, bleh. I also found the mystery to be decent and in the end would  give book two 3 1/2 stars.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online: 

Goodreads  /   Amazon

About the author:

Lauren Elliott grew up devouring Nancy Drew before graduating to Agatha Christie. Eventually, she tried her hand at penning a novel herself and is currently working on the next Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery.