This is Ms. Barrett's third book in her Booktown Mystery series and the best so far! The protagonist is Tricia Miles, owner of "Haven't Got a Clue" mystery bookstore in the small town of Stoneham, New Hampshire. For the last two weeks she has had to put up with her uninvited, freeloading, lazy ex-college roomie, Pammy Fredericks and enough is enough. Tricia lives above her bookstore in a one bedroom apartment and Pammy has taken over the living room, not to mention coming down to disrupt things in the bookstore and alienate customers with her bad attitude. Even Miss Marple, Tricia's cat, wants Pammy gone, gone, gone! The day Pammy leaves, Tricia finds that she has stolen $100 from her and who knows what else, but she is happy to see the last of her ex-friend. Unfortunately, Pammy has other ideas and goes to the surrounding shops applying for jobs, using Tricia as a job reference. Tricia's own sister, Angelica, hires Pammy to do some food prep work for her at, "Booked for Lunch", a 1950's retro cafe. When Tricia goes in to see Angelica and finds out Pammy is still in town, she goes out to the kitchen to talk to her, but instead finds the woman, head first in the food dumpster out back....dead! The last thing Tricia wants to do is deal with Sheriff Adams....a woman who has disliked her from day one. Instead she finds that a very tall and handsome Captain Grant Baker is to take on the case. Nobody really knows who would want to kill Pammy, but things heat up when Tricia finds out that Pammy had wanted desperately to speak with Stuart Paige, the town's top benefactor and that she was also in a small group known as freegans, who raided dumpsters in search for edible food. Tricia finds out about this through her own employee, Ginny, who is part of the small group made up of mostly business people who want to make a statement about the waste of edible food being discarded by grocery chains and restaurants. Apparently, no one in the group liked Pammy and she was told not to join them anymore. They told Tricia she was not a real freegan, but a scavenger who didn't care about the planet, only about money and getting something for nothing. They also told Tricia that Pammy had been bragging about coming into some money real soon. Tricia has a feeling this sounds like blackmail and when she begins to receive anonymous phone calls saying "give back the diary" she knows Pammy must have hidden a diary some place around her house and the killer wants it back! A few "accidents" almost injure Tricia, so she is thankful Detective Baker is willing to let her share her opinion on some theories. It doesn't hurt that he has the greenest eyes she has ever seen! With this going on there are a few other stories of interest....one about the new Food Shelf in town for the people who are down and out temporarily and then there is a surprise story about Ginny and her live-in boyfriend, Brian, and one about Mr. Everett, Tricia's senior citizen who works for her, and his special announcement! Tricia even has a bit of a surprise of her own. The ending will ambush you out of the blue about the identity of the killer. I had three suspects in mind and I didn't come close.....this was wonderfully written with an intricate plot that will make your mouth drop open! It will change around the next book a bit....but no spoilers here! I can't wait!! As always, there are recipes in the back from Angelica, who has finally put out a cookbook.Read full review
I bought the book because a friend lent me a copy, and I dropped it in water, so i needed a quick replacement. I couldn’t the put the book down, and could not wait to get the next in the series.
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in Books
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on Books