Bookplate Special: 09/20/17

Bookplate Special by Lorna Barrett is the third of the Booktown Mystery series. Tricia has found that her uninvited guest, Pammy, has stolen some money from her. So she's asked her to leave — only for her to end up dead across the street in Angela's new restaurant.

Meanwhile, a new food pantry is opened — further evidence of how hard things are for many people in Stoneham. The other side of food poverty is Freeganism. Since apparently Pammy was seen hanging out with the Freegans, Tricia spends most of the rest of the book learning about Freeganism, dumpster diving, being horrified at eating tossed out food, and basically being utterly clueless at how how much her faithful employee Jinny is struggling to make ends meet.

The secondary plot involves threatening phone calls, blackmail, and a missing diary. Here is the heart of the mystery but it's pushed into the background for Tricia to be repeatedly slapped in the face with her own privilege. But it probably won't stick between books.

My one complaint with this book is that Jinny seemed out of character. Yes, she is emotional but usually the over the top outbursts belong to Franny. Yes, she's struggling. But I don't see her hanging out with the Freegans. In Bookmarked for Death, Jinny makes a big deal about not wanting charity and not wanting others to know that she needs it. I therefore, don't see her joining a group to so publicly (even if it's at night) "Dumpster dive."

Four stars

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