When Bea Cartwright moved to South Bass, a summer resort
island on Lake
Erie, from Manhattan to open a bed-and-breakfast, she
certainly didn't
expect to get involved in a three-way courtroom brawl.
She's unhappy
because her next-door neighbour, new-age cat-lover Chandra
won't stop her
cat from peeing on Bea's property. Chandra is angry because
winery owner
Kate plays her opera music too loudly for her liking. And
Kate, in turn, is
seething because the delivery trucks that keep coming to
Bea's property are
creating too much traffic in the area. Even the judge can't
stand the bickering
and sentences the three women to try to get along in the
form of a mandatory
book group at the local library.
The first book the women read is Agatha Christie's classic
Murder on the
Orient Express, which the women read (or not) with mixed
reactions. After
the inaugural meeting of the book group, they all
coincidentally end up going
to the island's best Chinese restaurant, Orient Express.
Unfortunately, they
aren't able to eat as the find the dead body of the owner,
Peter. Freshly
inspired by Christie's work, the three ladies put aside
their differences (at
least temporarily -- bonded by trauma) and decide to work
together to find
out who would kill a mild-mannered restaurant owner who made
the best
orange-peanut chicken they ever had.
There are a few clues at the crime scene to start them off,
and Bea saw Peter
arguing with a man before the book group meeting, but other
than that, the
ladies have little to go on. The detective investigating
happens to be
Chandra's ex-husband who is merely amused by their attempts
to put clues
together and doesn't feel the need to share information. As
a winter storm
claiming the island's electricity rages on, Bea begins
taking on more boarders
until people are sharing rooms. Soon, the ladies realise
that their lives are
mirroring the book they are discussing - there are 13 of
them trapped
together in a snowbound place, and one of the 13 is a
killer.
The premise of this book is interesting, and I enjoyed how
the real mystery
mirrored the mystery the ladies read. If all of the books
in the League of
Literary Ladies mystery series follow this formula,
though, it could get old
quickly because the plot would be revealed as soon as the
reader knows
which book the ladies are reading. I really love how each
character had a
completely separate personality, but none were so overdone
that they became
caricatures. I also appreciated that, even though so many
characters were
introduced, it was very easy to keep track of them and the
book never got
confusing. I will definitely be adding this series to my
list of series to keep an
eye out for!
At a local Chinese restaurant, it's the owner who gets taken out... Most folks aren’t forced by court order to attend a library-book discussion group, but that’s just what happens to B and B proprietor and ex-Manhattanite Bea Cartwright, hippy cat lover Chandra Morrisey, and winery owner Kate Wilder after a small-town magistrate has had enough of their squabbling. South Bass, an island on Lake Erie, is home to an idyllic summer resort, but these three ladies keep disturbing the peace. The initial book choice is Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, and that sets their mouths to watering. The Orient Express is the island’s newest Chinese restaurant. They might not agree about much, but the ladies all love the orange chicken on the menu. But their meal is spoiled when the restaurant’s owner, Peter Chan, has the bad fortune of getting murdered. Now, with Christie as their inspiration, the League of Literary Ladies has a real mystery to solve if they can somehow catch a killer without killing each other first.
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