Having recently read a Book
Barn Mystery featuring Charli Rae Warren and her
pink armadillo in a book store in Texas, I just had to pick
up another installment. PERILOUS POETRY is the third book.
Charli Rae is preparing for the Christmas season's new
books to arrive and wondering why the local mayor hadn't
made good on his offer to take her for dinner. With the
winter holidays approaching she is also reminiscing about
her late mother and decorating trees. Her dad is still the
center of her life since she returned to live in small-town
Texas, and even Dad thinks she should get out more. Then
news comes of a sudden death -- very sudden. The electrician
who was to hang the store lights has been electrocuted on a
job. But this is promptly upstaged by the arrival of Aunt
Violet, who is organising a poetry reading by a wildly
popular author, and her tall son Jamal who has created a
book finder app to lead buyers to the store on a virtual
treasure hunt.
All seems rosy so why does someone fire gunshots into the
barn store one evening? Since the pink armadillo Princess is
a cute feature of the books, it's scary that she is in
danger just like her owner. The sheriff Mateo is quickly on
the scene, and he starts to correlate the electrician's
death in a different bookstore with the attack on the Book
Barn. The shocks continue.
I enjoyed reading about the app, which is like a Pokemon
trail, and the good people of Hazel Rock make a welcoming
crowd. Most of them.... I found a lot of variety of setting
and a nicely diverse cast, including the Mystery Moms book
club, to keep conversations ticking along while a hunt for a
killer is underway. The police activity also seems to be
accurately depicted. This is a smashing read which moves
swiftly but spends time with people who love and value our
heroine. A possible romantic clash keeps us guessing in that
department, but the trail of clues -- and deaths -- is the
main feature. I also like seeing Charli Rae being a
conscientious owner of an exotic pet, with little Princess
needing extra care.
If you would enjoy a cozy mystery involving books in a
lively setting, I can strongly recommend PERILOUS POETRY
which takes place just as the first snowstorms hit the Texas
Panhandle. Author Kym Roberts will make you very welcome to
the Book Barn.
Charli Rae Warren doesn’t plan on striking it rich as the
owner of an independent bookstore in Hazel Rock,
Texas—especially one with a pink armadillo as its mascot.
But when an ingenious advertising campaign puts her business
on the map, it ropes in some deadly publicity . . .
Charli can’t believe writer Lucy Barton has agreed to
promote her latest Midnight Poet Society novel at The Book
Barn Princess—or that there’s only a week-and-a-half to
prepare for the signing. It’s all because of The Book
Seekers, a smartphone app created by her cousin Jamal
exclusively for Charli’s bookstore, which sends fans on a
virtual scavenger hunt around town for a chance to meet the
bestselling author. But as soon as it goes live, people turn
up dead . . .
Someone’s using The Book Seekers to track victims and
copycat the fictional Midnight Poet Society homicides, and
horrified locals suspect Jamal could be the mastermind
behind the crimes. While Charli readies the Barn for a
stampede of new customers, it’ll take true grit to shelve
the culprit before her brainy cousin gets locked behind
bars, Ms. Barton backs out of the visit, and she finds
herself up a creek—with a serial killer holding the paddle!
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