Redheaded Reviews: Murder in the Paperback Parlor by Ellery Adams

Jane Steward is the widowed mother of twin sons Fitzgerald "Fitz" and Hemingway "Hem" and is the general manager of her aunt and uncle's hotel getaway for booklovers in the Virginia mountains. She is also the Guardian of the secret library that exists on the grounds filled with unpublished works by famous authors. Each day she trains with the Fins, the men who also work at the hotel in combat training to defend that library.

This week is the Romance Readers Week at the hotel. Several writers will be coming to rub elbows with their fans and make things available to auction off at the auction. Rosamund York, the number one writer will be auctioning off copies of her yet to be published book Eros Steals A Bride to anyone who bids at least $25, while Georgia Dupree will be auctioning off the naming of a character in her new book, Barbara Jewel offered to critique a work in progress, and Ciara Lovelace presented a special book club package. But everyone wanted a copy of York's book, which makes the other authors green with envy because their offering is not as good.

Maria Stone, her biggest fan and an even bigger feminist who gets royally pissed off with this new series that features a male chauvinist and not the feminist hero she had been known for writing. Everyone hates the book. Then at five a.m., the Fins find Rosamund dead outside in the garden with vomit around her, indicating she had been poisoned.

Was it Maria the rabid fan, or Georgia who once threatened her and who could now finally stand in the spotlight, or one of the other writers hoping to boost their sales? Or was it the journalist Nigel Poindexter who was overheard saying to Rosamund that he was done and that it was over. To which Rosamund replied not if I can help it. What is their connection and what is her hold on him? Or did her faithful publicist Taylor Birch do her in?

As with the first book, Adams does an amazing job of writing a mystery. I still want to find this place and go there. She's added a new character to the hotel, a Fin named Lachlan who suffers from PTSD and has a painful past that might be alleviated by Jane's friend Eloise. Jane and Edwin become closer only to hit a snag when her aunt and uncle and Sinclair tell her about Edwin's past and why they didn't want her seeing him she is shocked. I give this book a five out of five stars.

Quotes

There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable.

-Mark Twain

No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.

-C.S. Lewis

Jane bit into a biscuit and couldn’t help but sigh. There was something profoundly soothing about the taste and texture of the buttery dough. It was as though someone had wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and placed her feet in a basin of hot water. The feeling of comfort sank into Jane’s bones and gave her strength.

-Ellery Adams (Murder in the Paperback Parlor p 97)

The drowning man is not troubled by rain.

-Ellery Adams (Murder in the Paperback Parlor p 103)

There’s no such thing as bad whiskey.

-William Faulkner

To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.

-Mark Twain

Man will do many things to get himself loved; he will do all things to get himself envied.

-Mark Twain

Oh, what lies lurk in kisses.

-Heinrich Heine

Too many relationships start off like a romance novel and end up like a horror story.

-Ellery Adams (Murder in the Paperback Parlor p 251)