Death on the Page by Essie Lang is the second book in the Castle Bookshop Mysteries, a cozy mystery series that features bookstore owner Shelby Cox.
Title: Death on the Page
Author: Essie Lang
Series: Castle Bookshop Mystery #2
First Published: March 10, 2020
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Categories: Mystery
Acquired: from the publisher via NetGalley
*** Thank you to the publisher, Crooked Lane Books, for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. ***
Unfortunately Savannah’s body turns up the next morning at the bottom of the stairs in a secret passage. The last thing Shelby wants is to be involved in another murder, but she’s intrigued about how a killer could have reached the island after hours. The suspect list is pretty long, considering Savannah was just visiting the area. It could have been Savannah’s fiancé, Liam Kennelly, who argued with her the evening before, to island caretaker Matthew Kessler, recently cleared of his wife’s murder.
Idea theft turns deadly
One of the motives in the plot is something that I’ve seen play out more than once in the real world – an established author (in this case Savannah) is accused to stealing a book idea from an unknown author after they met briefly in real life and chatted about books.
If I were an established author (which I’m obviously not), I’d be terrified of this happening. Of course, there are differing degrees of this happening. It could be completely unintentional – a chance conversation, a tweet you saw, a photo on social media – all these things could sit somewhere in your subconscious and one day manifest into an idea that you don’t even realise was someone else’s. In Savannah’s case, it’s a little harder to believe Savannah was innocent. Apparently, Savannah and Jenna (the unknown author) met at a book conference where Jenna told Savannah about an idea for a book she wanted to write. Skip ahead to a few months later and Savannah has announced her next book – which is exactly the same as Jenna’s. And yes, Jenna is definitely mad about it.
Death on the Page has a likeable main character in Shelby Cox
Shelby is a fun character to base a cosy mystery series around. She recently moved to Alexandria Bay to help her Aunt Edie out after Edie had knee replacement surgery, but decided to stay and help with the bookstore (which she co-owns thanks to her mother). Shelby lives on a houseboat with a Maine Coon cat named JT and enjoyed her new life so much she decided to stay permanently.
There’s a lot of mystery around Shelby herself. Shelby moved to Boston with her dad when she was three after her mother had died. Or so she was told. Shelby recently learned the truth – her mom had run off and left Shelby and Shelby’s father. There are hints that Shelby will learn more about her mother so that might be something that will play out over the next several books of the series.
As with most cosy mysteries, there’s a colourful cast of townsfolk, including Shelby’s best friend, Erica Bryant, who owns Chocomania, a coffee and gourmet chocolate shop, and Taylor Fortune, one of the bookshop staff.
I haven’t had a chance to read the first book in the series yet, so I’m not sure what happened in terms of romance, but Shelby is now dating Coast Guard agent Zack Griffin. I liked that it was obvious from the start that he was her guy – no love triangles, no ex-boyfriends, no tension. While he’s not exactly supportive of her detecting ways, he does his best to support her and help her when he can.
I’ve definitely enjoyed these characters enough to go back and read Book one and add it to my watch list for future books in the series. At the very least, I want to know more about Shelby’s mom and see where Shelby ends up living during the winter months (because the house boat is out of commission).
Read Death on the Page for yourself
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I love a good cozy and this definitely sounds like a good one. Great review!
Thanks Theresa! I probably should have started with Book 1, but this was a great intro to the series too! Do you have any favourite cozy mystery series? I’m always on the lookout for new ones to try!
Joy Avon and Catherine Bruns have particularly good cozies out that I reviewed recently. Vivian Conroy is also very good. ☺️
I enjoyed Bruns and have recently discovered Conroy, but haven’t read anything by Avon yet – will have to look into her books! Thanks! I’ve just followed your blog so I can keep up with all your reviews!