A Fatal Chapter (A Booktown Mystery, Band 9) - Hardcover

Barrett, Lorna

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0425252663 ISBN 13: 9780425252666

Verlag: Berkley, 2015

Inhaltsangabe

New York Times bestselling author Lorna Barrett presents another page-turning chapter in her Booktown Mystery series. This time mystery bookshop owner Tricia Miles is about to find out murder is no walk in the park…

While out walking Sarge, her sister’s bichon frise, Tricia is led by the agitated dog to a man lying in a gazebo. She’s startled when she recognizes Pete Renquist, the president of the Stoneham Historical Society, who appears to be suffering from cardiac arrest. When Pete later dies in the hospital, the discovery of a suspicious bruise and a puncture mark on his arm suggests he may have been murdered.

Haunted by Pete’s enigmatic last words to her, Tricia begins to consider who had a motive to kill her friend. Did Pete take his flirting too far, only to have a jealous husband teach him a lesson? Or did he discover something in the town’s historical records that his killer wanted kept secret? Tricia is determined to get to the bottom of things before someone else becomes history…

INCLUDES RECIPES

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

LORNA BARRETT is the New York Times bestselling author of the Booktown Mysteries, including Book Clubbed and Not the Killing Type. She lives in Rochester, New York.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

CONTENTS

ONE

“Say cheese,” Russ Smith called, and Tricia Miles watched as her sister, Angelica, and Pete Renquist dutifully smiled for the camera. They stood at the north end of the Baxter Building, a three-story brick edifice that housed By Hook or By Book, Stoneham’s crafty book-and-craft shop. Its owner, Mary Fairchild, stood to one side, waiting her turn to grin for posterity.

Pete kept his gaze on Tricia and not the camera, waggling his eyebrows, smiling, and winking at her. After interacting with him for the past few months, she knew not to take him too seriously. Although he had a glib tongue, she knew he was all talk and no action. Still, his charm won out and she couldn’t help but like him.

The camera clicked as Russ took another shot. Angelica posed à la Vanna White, showcasing a gilded plaque that proclaimed the year the building had been constructed, 1842, and that it had been presented by the Stoneham Historical Society, which Pete, its current president, represented. Eventually all the historic structures in the village would sport such plaques—but as the oldest structure along Main Street, the Baxter Building had the honor of being first.

What seemed odd about this gathering was that the building’s owner, Bob Kelly, who had never missed an opportunity to toot his own horn, was not present. As far as Tricia knew, he’d been invited, but perhaps because his former lover Angelica, who now also possessed his former position as head of the Stoneham Chamber of Commerce, was present, he’d chosen not to attend. It was just as well. Lately Bob had become an even bigger pain in the butt than usual.

Since the fire at Tricia’s mystery bookstore, Haven’t Got a Clue, almost seven months before, Bob had been pressuring Tricia to buy the building, something she’d be quite happy to do—if the price was right. Bob was asking for much more than Tricia wanted to pay. Of course, for months she’d been paying rent on a building she could neither use nor live in while she waited for the insurance company to decide what they’d pay toward her losses. Angelica had rented out the top floor of the Chamber’s new home to Tricia for a modest fee, since Tricia, who had nothing better to occupy her time, found herself working for the Chamber as an unpaid volunteer.

“Let’s get Mary in the shot,” Russ called, his eyes suddenly visible above the viewfinder and flash on his Nikon.

Tricia moved aside to let Mary slide into position.

“Say cheese,” Russ called again.

“Enough with the cheese,” Angelica chided, and then cheerfully called out, “Whiskey!”

Tricia smiled, but then her gaze shifted as she caught sight of Selectman Earl Winkler, a cranky older gentleman with his hair styled in a brush cut and a mouth that never seemed to sport a smile. His perpetually sour disposition gave one reason to suppose that perhaps his diet lacked the necessary fiber for a happy life. His profession was vermin extermination, which somehow seemed to suit his negative outlook on life. How he had ever gotten elected was a mystery to Tricia, since Earl was a bundle of negativity. Of course, there was a whole contingent of local residents who weren’t happy with all the changes that had come to Stoneham since Bob had brought a shot of prosperity back to the once-dying village. They cursed the increased traffic, the tour busses, and the rise in property taxes that good fortune had brought. They were also peeved by the acts of serious crime that had increased within the village’s boundaries and had cost Stoneham its former title of Safest Village in New Hampshire—and they blamed Tricia for that. It was her misfortune to have either been present at the time of the crimes or nearby. That bad luck had also earned her the despised title of Village Jinx.

The sun disappeared behind a big fluffy cloud just as Earl halted beside Russ and stood, hands on hips, scowling.

“Good morning, Earl. Come to have your photo splashed across the next issue of the Stoneham Weekly News?” Angelica asked, her voice sickeningly sweet. Tricia took a step back. She knew to watch her back when she heard that tone of voice, for Angelica only used it on people she could barely stand.

“Hardly,” Earl answered. “I have more self-respect than the rest of you publicity hounds.”

“Oh, come now, Earl. All of us who’ve attended town meetings know how much you love the sound of your own voice,” Pete said. He was no fan of Earl, either.

“You’re blocking the sidewalk, which is against the law,” Earl asserted.

Angelica’s eyes narrowed. Tricia took another step back. “There is no one around—except you, and we will happily stand aside while you pass.”

“I’m not going in that direction,” Earl declared.

“Then why are you here? Did you need to speak to one of us?” Pete asked rather sharply.

“No. I just wanted to encourage you to hurry up and clear the sidewalk for pedestrian traffic.”

Russ replaced the lens cap on his camera. “I think I’ve got enough for the paper, although I may come back later in the day when the sun will make the gold leaf on that sign glow.”

Earl turned his angry glare on Tricia. “And what are you doing here anyway?”

“I’m a resident of Stoneham. I don’t have to have a reason to stand on the sidewalk at any time of the day or night,” Tricia said politely.

“Don’t get snippy with me, young woman,” Earl warned.

Before Tricia could defend herself, Angelica, bristling with indignation, stepped forward. “Please don’t speak to my sister in that tone of voice.”

Tricia reached out to touch Angelica’s arm. “Ange, don’t bother—”

“You’re a bully, Earl Winkler,” Pete accused. “You may now be just a skinny runt, but from what I hear you haven’t changed your ways since you were a schoolboy.”

Earl glared at Pete. “That sounds like slander to me.”

“I hear tell that in the past you operated with questionable business practices—what some might even say were highly unethical.”

Earl’s eyes blazed while the rest of them stood there in stunned silence. “Lies—all lies by my competition. In all the years I’ve been in business, I’ve never been taken to court,” Earl grated.

“And that was a mistake made by far too many of Stoneham’s honest businessmen,” Pete asserted.

“Now, now,” Russ said, spreading his arms and patting the air in a gesture of peace, for which Tricia was grateful.

“Ange, we need to move on,” Tricia told her sister, hoping to further deflate the tension. “You’ve got a meeting in Manchester later today, and you have a lot to accomplish before you leave.”

“And I need to check my messages,” Russ said.

“Any sign that baby is on the way?” Mary asked. She’d knitted the most adorable outfits in shades of blue for Russ and his wife Nikki’s first child. They’d decided they wanted to know their baby’s gender and had selected boy-friendly colors for the baby’s nursery.

“About a week or two,” Russ said. “I’ll be glad when it’s all over.”

“Ha! That’s what you think,” Pete said, and laughed. “Once the baby arrives, your life will never be the same. I speak from experience.”

Oh? Tricia...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Berkley
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2015
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0425252663
• ISBN 13: 9780425252666
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 304
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar