A KILLER ROMANCE

A bookshop owner who suspects her guest author is up to no good finds that the truth is more complicated than she knows.

Summer Merriweather fondly memorializes her late mom by continuing Hildy’s tradition of hosting “Romance by the Sea,” inviting authors to take part in the special event at her Beach Reads Bookstore on the little coastal island of St. Brigid, North Carolina. After all, what’s a better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than with tales of love? But Summer can’t get into the new book by Lana Livingston, her upcoming guest author—as a former English professor, Summer really doesn’t approve of recasting Romeo and Juliet with a happy ending. That’s not her only objection to Lana, about whom Hildy wrote “no friend of mine” in her notes on the author’s previous visit—but what does that mean? Summer is distracted from her bewilderment when a hard ankle turn leaves her stuck in a walking boot, heavily medicated. It’s lucky she gets so much support from her cousin Piper and Glads, her mother’s best friend. Mr. Darcy, the bird Summer inherited from Hildy, is there to cheer her up, though he can’t mitigate her dismay over Lana’s upcoming reading. When Det. Liam Connor shows up asking about Lana’s whereabouts, Summer begins to suspect there’s something fishy about her guest author, and an internet search suggests that Lana may not be who she says she is. When Lana’s found dead, Summer’s willing to write off the whole mess until the police accuse Glads of the crime; Summer then knows she has to find the true killer.

A mystery with such limited stakes for the lead character is a low-risk-and-reward offering.