No. 2 in a Booktown Mystery Series

Over the years more than one friend or acquaintance had asked Tricia why she was so enamored of the mystery genre. How could she actually enjoy stories that celebrated violent death? They had it all wrong. The books didn't celebrate death, but triumph for justice. Too often true-life villains got away with murder, but in fiction, justice was usually assured.

The above phrase came from Lorna Barrett's second book in the Booktown Mystery Series. The name of the book is Bookmarked For Death. I though the phrase was interesting for a few different reasons.

I guess the first reason is because it reminds me of a picture of an artist drawing an artist who is drawing an artist and so on. Here I find myself reading about myself. I think about mysteries in some of the same ways.

Another reason it is interesting is because Tricia (the main character and sleuth in this fiction account) makes herself into a "real" person like me. And in this fictional account, she encounters a "real life" death - in her world.

In her world, a visiting author is murdered in Tricia's book store during a book signing session break. As in the previous book, the local law enforcement treats her as a suspect. Her store gets shut down during the investigation and she has to move out of her home as well ... since she lives above her store. In addition to this, her employees need to continue working. So what is her solution? Luckily she can stay with her sister and her sister needs help in her store. But if she is going to get her store back open she is going to have to "help" the investigation along. And there are plenty of possible suspects.

I will not go any further into the story because it is one of those you just have to read and ... it's all about reading. But I will mention one little bonus the author includes in the book (as well as in the first book of the series) ... recipes. These are recipes for the foods included in the story. Boy ... do they look interesting.