Chapter and Curse is the first book in Elizabeth Penney’s new cozy mystery series, The Cambridge Bookshop Series, featuring librarian Molly Kimball.
Title: Chapter and Curse
Author: Elizabeth Penney
Series: The Cambridge Bookshop Series #1
First Published: September 28, 2021
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Genres: Mystery,
Acquired: from the publisher via Netgalley
*** Thank you to publisher, St. Martin’s Press, for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. ***
Molly Kimball and her mother, Nina, need a change. So when a letter arrives from Nina’s Aunt Violet in Cambridge, England requesting their help running the family bookshop, they jump at the chance.
Thomas Marlowe—Manuscripts and Folios, is one of the oldest bookshops in Cambridge, and—unfortunately—customers can tell. When Molly and Nina arrive, spring has come to Cambridge and the famed Cambridge Literary Festival is underway. Determined to bring much-needed revenue to the bookstore, Molly invites Aunt Violet’s college classmate and famed poet Persephone Brightwell to hold a poetry reading in the shop. But the event ends in disaster when a guest is found dead—with Molly’s great-aunt’s knitting needle used as the murder weapon. While trying to clear Violet and keep the struggling shop afloat, Molly sifts through secrets past and present, untangling a web of blackmail, deceit, and murder.
A brilliant new cozy mystery series
I’m a fan of Elizabeth Penney’s Apron Shop Mystery series, so it didn’t take much convincing to get me to read her the first book in her new series, an ohmygoodness, am I glad I did! I LOVE THIS BOOK! It has everything that gets me excited about a cozy mystery – an English setting (Cambridge), historical buildings, including an old bookshop that was opened in 1605, cute British guys, and even a retired spy. Oh, and that dart scene!
The setup has the standard “life has shifted” introduction – Molly and her mother, Nina, live in Vermont, USA. Molly’s father, Derek, an American, passed away six months ago and Molly, a librarian, has recently lost her job due to budget cuts. Molly’s mother, a Brit, is a well regarded poet with several published books, but hasn’t written anything since Derek died. Both Molly and Nina definitely need a change in their lives, which arrives in the form of a letter from Nina’s Aunt Violet, who runs the family bookshop back in England. Thomas Marlowe-Manuscripts & Folios has been in the family since its start in 1605 and is listed as a historic site on Magpie Lane in Cambridge.
After Molly and Nina settle in, they discover that the bookshop hasn’t been doing too well financially. Clive Marlowe, Nina’s cousin, loaned Violet money to keep the shop going, but is now calling in his debts and wants to sell the historic shop to a (ugh) chain bookstore. Of course, Nina and Molly roll up their sleeves to help Violet keep the bookstore going.
The murder and the victim herself stirs up quite a lot of buried secrets and it made the entire mystery much for captivating as it seemed like a never-ending reveal of secrets, heartbreaks, hidden scandals and evil intentions, sometimes from the most unlikely of places. And while I loved the mystery (the pacing, clues and suprising twists were a lot of fun and kept me flipping pages as fast as I could read), it was the characters that I fell in love with in this story.
A charming cast of characters
I adored Molly, Nina and Aunt Violet. There’s something so great about feisty women at any age who are smart, accomplished, can throw darts and can take care of a pint. These three ladies alone would have made the story the perfect read for me, but it was the added bonus of some great supporting characters that really added to the charm of the story.
I’m looking forward to seeing Molly’s friendship with teashop owner Daisy grow, plus there’s the two handsome guys that work at the bike shop, Kieran and Tim. Kieran is a wonderful mix of gentleman, hunk, nobleman and “regular guy” and I’m looking forward to his blossoming romance with Molly.
An intriguing backstory that will hopefully grow along with the series is Nina’s relationship with her estranged brother, Christopher. Christopher and his son Charlie work as thatchers and seem quite nice but Christopher’s wife, Janice, is absolutely terrible, so that should be cause for some fireworks in the future.
I also really enjoyed the two law enforcement characters – Inspector Sean Ryan who seems to be interested in Nina (what a nice change!) and of course, the best character, Sir Jon, a retired MI6 agent who now owns a bookshop specialising in (what else?) spy novels. He was so much fun!
The characters really gelled with me and with each other and their dialogue and interactions felt really natural and fun. Even the “baddies” were written in a way where you could hate them, but they didn’t put you off from reading the book. It was enjoyable from start to finish.
Read Chapter and Curse for yourself
As many of you know, I read A LOT of cozy mysteries. And if the first book in a new series doesn’t catch me, it’s pretty easy to move on and find another series – there’s so many available. Most of the time though I’m pretty lucky in picking out books that I enjoy and most debuts are interesting enough to ensure that I keep an eye out for the sequel. Once in a while though, I enjoy a series-starter so much that the series goes right onto my “Must-Read” list. This is one of those times.
I absolutely loved, loved, loved this book! When it ended I not only added this to my “Must-Read” list, I went online to see if a sequel had been announced yet (it’s coming out in August!) because I cannot wait to continue reading about Molly, her family, friends and the Marlowe bookshop!
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