read and buried

Title: Read and Buried

Author: Erika Chase aka Linda Wiken

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Mystery

Series: Ashton Corners Book Club Mystery, Bk 2

ISBN: 9780425251782

Pages: 287 + "Reading Lists"

Obtained: Library copy

Comments:

Perhaps you remember how much the first book in this series, A Killer Read, thrilled me.  Read and Buried has all those same things going for it.  The reading specialist main character.  The book club.  The push at literacy and mention of the Rapid Reads line.  Quotes at the beginning of each chapter from a variety of mysteries.  With all this I was already biased going in.  I doubt I could possibly have disliked this book.

But that wasn't an issue...because I did enjoy this mystery.  An award winning author (a bit of a one-hit wonder) is in town and is (in a complicated fashion) invited to speak to the book club.  He's murdered before he ever has the chance.  And of course it takes place at a book club member's house and a book club member is suspect.  So once again, the Ashton Corners Mystery Readers and Cheese Straws Society works together to discover who the real killer is.

I did kind of suspect the killer, but I did not guess why.  I had this whole entirely untrue theory going on in my head, and it took quite a bit to convince me that was not the case.  Even as that theory didn't occur to the characters at all.  Good thing, huh?  Who knows if the killer would have been caught if I'd been on scene. ;p  (I know this is fictional. Honest! No matter how the previous sounds.)

Things of note:

• This is a Canadian read!  An accidental one, but Canadian nonetheless. The author lives in Ontario.
• This book is set around Christmas.  It was real hard for that to stick with me, what with it being set in the south and not snowy (look at the cover).

I look forward to reading book 3, Cover Story, due out August 2013.

a killer read

Title: A Killer Read

Author: Erika Chase aka Linda Wiken

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime

Series: Ashton Corners Book Club, Bk 1

ISBN: 9780425247037

Pages: 283 + "Reading Lists"

Obtained: Library copy

My Thoughts:

I picked this up because it was a new cozy.  It had extra appeal because I knew it was book related.  But so many little details appealed throughout...

Lizzie is apparently a "reading specialist."  Cool job title, no?  She's helping find how classes can best teach and encourage kids to learn, helping individual students improve their literacy skills, and then teaching an adult literacy class.  If you've followed my blog you may know I have a special fondness for books that address or help with adult literacy.  Not only does this book address the issue, but it mentions a publisher/line that helps as well... Rapid Reads.  I personally have read 4 Rapid Reads books by 2 authors (Love You to Death, One Fine Day You're Gonna Die, and The Shadow Killer by Gail Bowen and Orchestrated Murder by Rick Blechta).  So there was a bit of a thrill.  Lizzie starts a mystery book club, something I would LOVE to do if only I knew people interested and willing.  They decide to call themselves Ashton Corners Mystery Readers and Cheese Straws Society, which I believe was based off of The Guernesey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows ... a book I enjoyed and consider one of my top new-to-me reads of 2010.  Throughout the book a number of references are made to cozy mysteries, both those I've read and TBR, in the quotes highlighting the beginning of each chapter (the quotes also originate from Agatha Christie and other mysteries/thrillers/suspense type books) and throughout the story itself.

If you haven't already gathered from the above this book thrilled my book and mystery loving heart.  But beyond that, I enjoyed the story (a mysterious murder just outside of where they meet for their first book club meeting), the supporting characters, and the Siamese cats.  I look forward to reading the next book, Read and Buried, due out (I think) in December.