This is Barrett's fourth book in her Booktown Mysteries series. It's part of the Berkley Prime Crime Mysteries that are based around different things, like tea, a diner, cooking, a bookshop and many others. Most of them are a fun read. They're gentle crime mysteries, no gore or anything confronting. Just nice relaxing reads with new blends on the old Agatha Christie style.
This series in set in a small town that was financially going under, so the council had the unique idea of turning it into a book town with lots of specialty bookshops. One of the bookstore owners they enticed into the town is the character Tricia Miles who runs the mystery bookstore 'Haven't Got A Clue'. Miles tends to fall into mysteries and trip over dead bodies as she tries to run her store amongst police harassment and town gossip whilst solving murders to clear her name or her friends.
In book four Tricia gets herself involved in a gas explosion and murder as she tries to protect her sister, cookbook store owner Angelica, from a crazed stalker whilst attempting to help her friends hold onto their businesses in a town that's not doing as well as the council would like it to. Accompanied by her cat, Miss Marple, she unwillingly falls in and out of scrapes like a bumbling middle-aged sleuth who'd rather be curled up with the latest edition off her shelves.
The series is a fun read. Great for that relaxing evening spent at home or the rainy day where you just want to curl up quietly in a warm chair by a rain-soaked window and get lost in a little mystery.
