Verse and Vengeance: A Magical Bookshop Mystery
By: Amanda Flower
Rating: 4 of 5
I’ve read other books and series by Amanda Flower, mainly in her Amish mysteries. I really enjoy her writing, so I took a chance with “Verse and Vengeance”, which is completely different from the books that I have read.
There are earlier books in this series and it became apparent to me, fairly early on, that this book would be a pivotal story in what goes on next.
It was also a bit difficult for me to catch up to the premise and to understand how the characters related to one another. The author did a good job of giving back story information without giving away much of the earlier books. However, I think I could have gotten much more from the story if I had read the earlier books first.
In this book, Violet Waverly is in charge of the magical bookstore which has, in all of its incarnations, been part of her family for hundreds of years.
The book is set near the Niagara Falls and there is a stream that provides sustenance for the magic which occurs at the bookstore. The book will provide all of the backstory for that.
There is a bicycle race being held to raise money for the renovation of the Town Hall and to create a museum for the Underground Railroad history that is so important Cascade Springs (the town where the action takes place.)
There is a death that is deemed a murder and investigations start. The individual who comes under suspicion is a friend and a student of Violet. She feels compelled to come to her defense and to enlist the assistant of her own boyfriend to help. It certainly doesn’t hurt that her boyfriend is also the chief of police.
There were a number of storylines interwoven but, by the end of the story, they have all come together.
I enjoyed reading the book although it was so different from the funny cozy mysteries I have come to expect from Amanda Flower. While some funny things did happen, there wasn’t an overall humorous bend to the story.
I was provided a digital advance reader copy of this book by the publisher via Netgalley.