Review - Murder is Binding - Lorna Barrett

 

At the beginning of Lorna Barrett's Murder is Binding, Tricia Miles' husband decides he wants to start a new life without her, so she takes her divorce settlement and moves to Stoneham, New Hampshire. Stoneham is a booktown where a variety of specialty bookstores have opened on the main street and attract buses full of tourists. 

Tricia is happily settling into life there, successfully running her mystery bookstore when her life begins to fall apart again. First, the sister she has never been close to shows up in Stoneham determined to move there. Next, Tricia returns from dinner one night to find the store next door to hers on fire and the owner dead. The police chief assumes that Tricia is the murderer. Tricia assumes the murder is related to an antique cookbook Doris, the victim, purchased just before her death.  However, the murderer has taken the book, so find the book, find the murderer, or vice versa.

Barrett sets a solid cast of characters who are likable and easy to care about, but the plot resolution is a bit gimmicky. Would still recommend.